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MEMOIR 



OF 



PHILIP AND RACHEL PRICE. 



" Honour thy Father and thy Mother. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PRINTED FOR ELI K. PRICE AND PHILIP M. PRICE. 

1852. 






E. B. MEARS, STEREOTYPER. 



C. SHERMAN, PRINTER. 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 028852 



PHILIP AND RACHEL PRICE. 



Beloved and venerated parents, your memory is 
cherished by your children with a devoted affection : 
Shall they pay no outward tribute of respect, nor leave 
of you any memorial for the future ? To you, under Pro- 
vidence, we owe it, that we breathe the breath of life — 
that we open our eyes to the glorious light — behold the 
beauties of all created things, and rejoice in a happy 
existence. To you we owe yet more; that we were 
trained to lives of usefulness, guided in the paths of 
virtue, and from your lips received the inspired words to 
turn the heart in love to God. With us and our children 
the recollection of beloved features will pass away ; and 
shall the memory also of your worth, affections, and 
devoted service with us perish for ever ! The thought 
of it brings the reproach of a delinquency in filial duty 
to you, and also of the neglect of the sacred obligation 
we owe to our posterity, to perpetuate your precepts and 

example, for their observance and imitation. To com- 

3 



4 THE HUMBLY GOOD. 

meinorate these I would invoke to the service more than 
the skill of the Egyptian art of conservation, that your 
character and memory might be embalmed in the hearts 
of our descendants in all the purity and beauty in which 
you lived, and yet live in the recollections of your 
children : And as your long lives were a bright exempli- 
fication of the power of Grospel truth, so may your 
memory live in its light and life, enshrined in living tem- 
ples of love and devotion, for ages to come. 

To commemorate by written memorial all those of good 
name who have lived and died would multiply books be- 
yond the capacity of readers to peruse more than a very 
Hmited selection. The beneficence of the Creator pro- 
duces in his creation the good and the beautiful in bound- 
less profusion. The sequestered flowers that bloom unseen 
by human eye, and " waste their sweetness on the desert 
air," do not uselessly grow, — but produce a seed that in 
time may germinate in light, and lend a cure to the heal- 
ing art. The humbly good that pass through life and 
challenge no admiration of men may unobtrusively instil 
into many hearts sentiments to be perpetuated for the 
moral and religious preservation of our race : And if 
their virtues do but bloom in the sight of the Creator's 
Eye, and shed a fragrance that is but an incense to Him, 
they will not have lived in vain. 

To claim a worldly distinction for those whose endea- 
vour it ever was — "to do justly, and to love mercy, and 



BLENDED NARRATIVE. 5 

walk humbly with their Grod" — would be to act in con- 
flict with the spirit that actuated their lives. Acting 
solely in obedience to their apprehension of duty to man 
and his Creator, such a pretension would be rebuked by 
the recollection of that self-watchfulness that ever 
guarded them against the weakness of human vanity, and 
accounted all that was good and excellent as emanating 
from a Divine Source ; the merit of which man cannot 
rightfully claim as his own. Yet all of their history that 
may be useful to others, in precept or example, it is a 
duty to rescue from forgetfulness and loss ; and to per- 
petuate it, is in perfect consonance with their sentiments 
and character. If their lives were rightfully devoted, the 
record of the testimony of that devotion cannot fail to be 
useful ; and faithfully to portray, is unavoidably to com- 
mend, — for the facts speak praise : But praise cannot 
reach " the dull cold ear of death," — and their offspring 
cannot share it but by a like deserving. 

The plain and simple memoirs of Philip and Rachel 
Price will readily and harmoniously blend in the narra- 
tive. United early in life, they lived together in cordial 
affection and harmony of views for more than half a cen- 
tury. Born and educated in the Society of Friends, and 
both at an early age brought under that Divine influence 
which alone can constitute them truly its members, they 
devoted tneir protracted lives faithfully to the duties 
which its discipline, its testimonies, and its faith enjoin. 
1* 



6 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 

The one successively an overseer and elder and the other 
a minister of the Gospel, they were never called to move 
under diverse views, and were only separated by the calls 
of duty leading either to the visitation of distant places, 
when the sacrifice was made from the united sense of a 
religious obligation. These separations were felt to be 
privations in proportion to the intensity of their affec- 
tion, but in a like degree was the sacrifice a source of 
consolatory reflection, when their minds were brought to 
the test of the inquiry whether they had fulfilled the 
Divine injunctions laid upon them. In the performance 
of the services required they were often separated in per- 
son, but in harmony of feeling, devotion to duty, love for 
each other and for their Maker, there was ever a unity in 
one mind and one spirit. 

Philip Price was born the 8th day of the First month, 
1764, and was the fifth in the line of lineal descent from 
Philip Price, who came into Pennsylvania with the Welsh 
settlers, who in 1682 took up Merion, Haverford, and 
Radnor townships, and increasing afterwards settled the 
townships of New-town, Goshen, and Uwchlan (1 Proud* s 
His. 221). The name was continued to him through 
but a single male representative in each generation from 
the first settler. His father, Philip Price, of Darby, died 
9 month 17th, 1811. His mother, Hannah Bonsall, of 
Kingsessing, was of English descent, and of a family of 
the first settlers in that place. They were both members of 



RESCUE FROM WANT. 7 

the Society of Friends in good esteem, the latter an elder, 
lived together in close harmony half a century, and 
extended to their children the guarded education recom- 
mended by the discipline of their religious society. 

Rachel Price, born the 18th day of 4th month, 1763, 
was a daughter of William Kirk, of East Nantmeal, 
Chester county, the tenth child of Alphonsus Kirk, who 
came from the North of Ireland, and settled in Centre, 
New Castle county, in 1689 (1 Proud, 218), and of Si- 
bylla Davis, who was of a family of early Welsh settlers. 
They were also members and held in esteem in the Reli- 
gious Society of Friends, and their children received from 
them the religious care customary in that society. 

The parents of neither were wealthy, and as a grazier 
in Kingsessing, Philip Price in the same season suffered 
the loss of his stock of fat cattle by the British, and 
afterwards of his poor by the American army, during the 
revolutionary war. 

William Kirk, removing from his father's residence 
near Wilmington, prior to the middle of last century, was 
a pioneer in a new settlement, and encountered the usual 
hardships and perils of those who first penetrate the 
wilderness, to fell the forest and reclaim the earth for 
cultivation. At an early period of this settlement, when 
the clearing was small and the crops in proportion, a 
severe winter came on, with a heavy snow three or four 
feet deep, and drifting, made the roads next thing to im- 



8 RESCUE FROM WANT. 

passable. It found them destitute of provision. The 
father rode all day to procure a supply, but returned at 
night exhausted and sick, without any success. The 
feelings of the wife and mother were roused to make 
another effort to avert starvation. She set off next 
morning and beating her way through the snows on 
horseback, reached George Ashbridge's mill, now Mill- 
town, near Westtown School, a distance of more than 
fourteen miles. She offered her web of homespun and 
next year's crop in pledge for meal ; frankly confessing 
that they were without food and without money. The 
miller — honoured be his name, as yet it is in Chester 
county and the city of Philadelphia in the third and 
fourth generations — took only her word, and furnished 
her the meal, and offered to supply the family until the 
next harvest. The husband in her absence had appeased 
the sharpest cravings of their children's hunger by the 
rinsings of the kneading bowl, and at night they found 
respite in sleep. But the sleepless husband watched in 
deepest anxiety and sympathy for her return all the night 
long, during which the heroic wife had battled with the 
snows. She reached their cabin in the morning, with 
the precious store for relief, and the husband and wife, 
overcome with joy and gratitude, fell into each other's 
arms and wept, — much to the astonishment of her young 
brother, a lad of ten or twelve years of age, at such a 
manifestation of rejoicing, — who sensibly hastened to 



THE POST DOG. 9 

make a pot of mush for breakfast. This relief from the 
extremity of peril, our mother often told us with a like 
emotion, her father never could relate without shedding 
tears ; and with tears the narrative is now written, and 
will often so be read by the descendants of William Kirk. 
It is due to truth, however, to say that the courageous 
woman was the first wife, Mary Buckingham, and Rachel 
Price was a daughter of the second wife of her father. 

An amusing substitute for the mail occurred between 
the families. William Kirk took with him to the new 
settlement a dog from his father's house. It occurred 
that the dog got his feelings hurt and travelled off to his 
old home, whence, upon the like offence being taken upon 
a like show of disrespect, he travelled back again. Ob- 
serving this infirmity of temper, or perhaps a proper self- 
respect and dignity, it was practised upon so as to make 
him the bearer of letters to and fro, inclosed in a bladder 
tied round his neck, so as not to be wet in swimming the 
Brandywine. The letter adjusted, the provocation to a 
departure was administered, and the excited temper sped 
the post dog, unconscious of the calculated purpose of 
which he was the victim, a distance of thirty miles, at 
the end of which he was welcomed by food and caresses. 
This incident may not be destitute of instruction to 
others than the canine race against suffering their infirmi- 
ties to be played upon for the advantage of those more 
cunning than themselves. 



10 DEVIATION AND REPENTANCE. 

William Kirk's eldest son, Caleb, interested for his 
father in his loneliness after the death of his first wife, 
and desirous of a good mother-in-law for the children, 
advised his marrying an excellent widow of the name of 
Coates. The father thought she was rather too old for 
him, and declined taking the advice, and thereupon the 
son courted and married her himself. The only issue of 
the latter marriage were three sons, one, Elisha Kirk, an 
eminent minister among Friends. The father, besides his 
ten children by his first wife, had nine by his second, the 
sixth of whom was Rachel Kirk. Happily, therefore, it 
was that the well intended advice was not taken. 

Our father at earliest manhood, for deviations so slight 
that the world would deem them trivial and unimportant, 
was visited by compunctions and a repentance that pro- 
duced an instant and marked effect on all his after life. 
Contrary to the known wishes of his parents he adopted 
a fashionable style of dress, and with a company of other 
young friends inclined to gaiety, visited first Shrewsbury 
and afterwards London Grove quarterly meeting. At 
the latter meeting, the powerful preaching of Jacob 
Lindley reached home to his state of feeling so strongly 
that he heeded not the call of his companions to rejoin 
them, and he returned home by himself, already experienc- 
ing the precious feelings resulting from the resolution to 
take up the cross and submit to the Divine will. 

Thus commenced, in a ministration that made one as a 



LETTERS. 11 

spiritual father the instrument of arresting an erring son, 
a friendship, that made them in after life affectionate co- 
labourers in the services of the Church, and in the cause 
of humanity. 

The following fragments of correspondence indicate 
the exercised state of mind which followed this event, — 
of a youth yet considerably in his minority. 

Kingsess. 23d 9 mo. 1782. 
Dear Friend, — I received thy letter this afternoon, 
and shall endeavour to answer according to ability, — feel- 
ing much love towards thee at this time, and should have 
been glad to see thee at the meeting. As thee seems 
anxious to hear how we come on, I shall let thee know a 
little how it is with me in that respect. As I feel my 
mind much drawn from the follies and vanities of this 
world, which I have too much given way to, to my hurt, 
I find at this time that I cannot keep company with any 
one on the account that thee mentions. This is very 
much in the cross of the natural will, but I find I cannot 
witness true peace without yielding obedience to that 
forming Hand which has drawn me much from the 
world and worldly things, so that all prospects of enter- 
ing into business or settling as thee mentions, have van- 
ished at this time. But if way should open more clearly 
to enter into that business, I will let thee know, as I 
would as soon enter into partnership with thee as any one 



12 LETTERS. 

slse. * * * I do not expect to come down to the 
meeting. I desire thy welfare, and that thou wouldst 
give up thy time more and more to serve Him for whose 
glory we are all created ; so that when these fading things 
shall be no more, we shall receive an admittance into the 
Arms of Everlasting Peace and Kest. What will all the 
world be to us if we end not well at last ? I believe 
there is no time like giving up in our youth, whilst 
health and strength of body are afforded us ; that so 
we may be as lights to the world, that others seeing our 
good works, may glorify God, who is worthy for ever. 
Though I meet with discouragements sometimes, and be- 
lieve myself to be as it were the hindermost of the flock, 
yet I feel a desire that all my companions, as well as my- 
self, may come to see ourselves as we truly are. 
I remain thy loving friend, 

Philip Price. 

Kingsess. the 16th of 1 mo. 1783. 
My Dear Son, — I received thine, which was a comfort 
to me, and I have esteemed it a great blessing that thou 
art one amongst the number who are made willing to 
stand for the testimony of truth, and my desires are that 
thou mayst be more and more established, and that thou 
mayst not run too fast, nor loiter behind thy true guide : 
for what we are is by mercy and not any merit of our 
own. I believe it is good for us often to examine our- 



LETTERS. 13 

selves, and I can truly say that thy preservation, with 
that of thy brothers and sisters, is more near and dear to 
me, than all other earthly blessings ; and that it is a 
great comfort to thy father and me, that thy mind has 
been thus early touched with that, that if strictly abided 
in, will lead out of great trouble and conflict in this pre- 
sent world, and when time here shall be no more, crown 
with that which neither this fading world, nor the enjoy- 
ments thereof, can ever give. And I may further say 
that I hope from thy example thy brothers and sisters 
may be willing to take up the cross. * * * 
From thy mother, 

Hannah Price. 
To Philip Price, Jr. 

Philadelphia, 2 mo. 5th, 1783. 
Esteemed Friend, — Since I last saw thee at thy 
father's house, thou hast been the object of near care and 
sympathy, being confirmed in the persuasion that He 
whose mercy is over all His works, hath in infinite loving 
kindness cast the mantle of redeeming love over thee. 
And oh, saith my spirit, that neither heights nor depths, 
things present nor those that yet await thee, may ever be 
able to separate from this enjoyment of the love of 
Christ and the sweet incomes of His life-giving presence. 
It is only by bowing to the blessed Root and abiding in 
the Living Vine, that we are fitted to receive Divine 
2 



14 LETTERS. 

instruction, bearing with, patience and resignation the 
truly necessary preparation, even the pruning Hand. 
Thus is the mind enlightened, and an enlargement expe- 
rienced into the mysteries of the Heavenly Kingdom, 
and we not only discover clearly His gracious will con- 
cerning us, but as we keep a single eye to Him, neither 
attempting to go forward, nor in the moments of proving 
and desertion, when the winter season is wisely permitted, 
seeking succour and nourishment short of the living 
eternal substance. We shall be favoured with the fur- 
ther discoveries of light and truth, and be enabled to 
withstand the unwearied enemy, however various his 
transformations, and mysterious his workings. That 
thou and I may fervently and diligently labour after this 
necessary and right experience, is the ardent desire of 
Thy real friend, 

Hannah Cathrall. 
To Philip Price, Jr. 

Kingsess. 5 mo. 1783. 
Dear Friend, — I have been at home about a week ; 
since which I attended Concord quarterly meeting, greatly 
to my satisfaction and peace of mind. I feel a near sym- 
pathy with thee, my dear friend, under thy present trying 
dispensation, which I have wished might be sanctified to 
thy further refinement, and that we may endeavour for 
contentment under every allotment, which the Lord in 



EARLY VISITATIONS. 15 

Infinite Wisdom is pleased to place us in. His Holy 
Hand is underneath His dependent children, to preserve 
them and lead them in paths they have not seen, and 
will not suffer them to be tried beyond what they can 
bear j but He will arise in his own good time for their 
deliverance. I write from a small degree of experience, 
being as it were left alone ; but He who knows the sin- 
cerity of my heart has been pleased again to favour me 
at times with a glimpse of His living presence ; which is 
a cause of humble thankfulness. In Him, therefore, let 
us put our trust, who is able to deliver ; and unto whose 
Divine Protection I recommend thee, with desires for 
thine as well as my own establishment in the ever blessed 
Truth. With that love which united us in the paths of 
self-denial, I remain thy assured friend, 

P. Price, Jr. 
To . 

Our mother has left her own account of her early reli- 
gious impressions. " I believe children are often visited 
with the endearing influence of Divine Love in their hearts 
even in early years. When I look back to the many pre- 
cious feelings that I was favoured to witness in early life / 
my mind is clothed with gratitude to the Author of my ex- 
istence for his care of me. Often, when my pious parents 
were concerned to collect their numerous offspring together 
and read the Scriptures or some good book, the sweet im- 



16 EARLY VISITATIONS. 

pressions that I sometimes felt remain fresh in my recol- 
lection, now in advanced age. I mention this for the 
encouragement of parents, who may have young families 
coming up around them, to take up the cross and invite 
their children together, not merely in a formal manner, 
but with sincere desires for mutual improvement. Al- 
though parents may not see their pious labour and care 
crowned with success, yet I believe they will receive the 
reward of peace, and may have the hope that their con- 
cern and exercise may, like the bread cast upon the 
waters, be found after many days. I can freely acknow- 
ledge that the tender care of my pious parents was the 
means, under the guidance of best wisdom, of preserving 
me in my youthful days, from many of the snares into 
which too many of the unguarded fall, in passing along 
the slippery paths of youth. They were not stern or 
severe in their commands, but kept the way open for 
advice and counsel. I seldom or ever parted with my 
dear mother, without her saying to me something in this 
wise : ( Now thou wilt be from under my eyes for a short 
time, but remember that thou art always under the All- 
Seeing Eye that is watching over us in mercy/ I at that 
time thought there was an over anxious solicitude about 
me, but since I have experienced the anxiety of a mother, 
I feel thankful for her care." 

In the 5th month, 1782, Rachel Kirk was passing by 
the gate of Friends' meeting-house, at Second and Market 



MET IN THE WAY. 17 

streets, Philadelphia, and was stopped by a Friend who 

took her hand, and asked, " Whence comest thou V Being 

told the place and her name, and having answered as to 

the settlement in life of her sister Rebecca, whom the 

Friend had met before, and whom he remembered and 

loved, he paused and said, " Rachel, it will be thy turn 

next, and be careful that thou place thy affections upon 

virtue. Let not anything short of virtue sway thy mind. 

If anything inferior should gain pre-eminence in thy view, 

difficulties may ensue; but if virtue and piety govern 

thy mind in making a choice of a companion, you may 

walk hand in hand happily together through life, and be 

true helpmates to each other." Still holding her by the 

hand, he continued, — " Farewell : now mind what I say." 

This Friend was Samuel Emlen, an eminent minister, who 

through life seemed to have been gifted with a prophetic 

spirit. That casual meeting — casual so far as man can 

discern — in the crowded market-place, produced a lasting 

impression, and may have determined the current of a 

happy and useful life. Narrating it to her children, after 

she had lived in wedlock for more than half a century, 

and known all the experience of a long life, she said, " I 

thought it a remarkable interview with an entire stranger 

But it was of great use to me in settling my mind to 

make a prudent choice, which was soon after brought to a 

trial, having but a few days previously become acquainted 

with Philip Price, with whom his prediction has been 
2* 



18 MARRIAGE. 

verified, and as far realized as can be expected in this 
probationary state of trial, for onr refinement and pre- 
paration for a more perfect state of existence. " They 
were married on the 20th of the 10th month, 1784. 
Assisted by the opportune advice, she preferred the seri- 
ous, virtuous, and solid character, to the more gay and 
showy, and enjoyed the felicity of a congenial companion- 
ship through life, but witnessed the moral declension of 
him of specious address and appearance, who had had 
but a momentary power to hold her choice in suspense. 

Farming was the business of Philip Price. After his 
marriage he remained three years with his father in 
Kingsessing, — then four years on a farm in East Nant- 
meal, Chester county, when in 1791 he bought the plan- 
tation lying between West Chester and the Brandywine. 
At this time, like much of the surrounding country, it 
was in a low condition, exhausted, washed into gullies 
and unclothed with verdure ; and partly overgrown with 
poverty grass, briers, and alder bushes. Writing to Judge 
Peters in 1796, P. Price said — a In the spring of the 
year 1792, I fenced off a piece of about four acres (to 
fold his cattle), being a part of a large field that was 
much reduced, washed into deep gullies in many parts, 
and which had been totally neglected for many years. 
The appearance was so disagreeable that I put no value 
on it when I purchased the place, though the field con- 
tained fifty acres." Mem. Pha. Ag. Soc'y. 2 vol. The 



AGRICULTURE. 19 

highest efforts of agricultural improvement in this 
neighbourhood at the time of the purchase were those of 
a few meadows under artificial irrigation. Philip 
Price was in communication with Judge Peters, Dr. 
Mease, and others, who had begun to take a lively interest 
in the advancement of agriculture, and his acquaintance 
and observation extended to the best practical farmers 
and farms in the country. He commenced on his newly 
purchased place a course of improvement in manuring, 
the sowing of red clover and other grasses, and in the 
rotation of crops, that rapidly took effect, and rewarded 
his skill and labour. Lime was obtained from the " Val- 
ley/' gypsum or plaster from tide water, and freely 
administered ; the stable manure was protected by shelter, 
and applied without loss of strength before the autumnal 
seeding of wheat. Judge Peters, in publishing the com- 
munications of Philip Price and others, on the advantages 
of plaster of paris, says, "I have heard of none who 
have been more remarkably successful in the plaster sys- 
tem than Mr. "West and Mr. Price. They have brought 
old worn-out lands to an astonishing degree of fertility 
and profit, by combining the plaster with other manures." 
lb. 34. 

The best rotation of crops, that resulted from expe- 
rience, was to break up the sod late in the fall or early in 
the spring, and to plant the field with Indian corn, pump- 
kins, and potatoes — the former intermixed, the latter 



20 ROTATION OF CROPS. 

manured ; the second year to sow with barley or oats, 
and after the removal of this crop, to plough the stubble, 
manure and sow with wheat in the fall, upon which was 
sown the clover and timothy seed, to come into use for 
pasture after the wheat harvest of the next summer, and 
to be mowed and pastured with the use of gypsum for 
several successive years, until the field came in rotation 
for a like repetition of crops. This process of careful 
husbandry transformed the exhausted hills of the Brandy- 
wine into their present fertile and beautiful appearance, 
and made them a garden spot of the world. And the 
worthless old worn-out u fifty acre field," its proprietor 
lived to see worth more than a hundred dollars an acre, 
in common with the residue of the plantation. To have 
been a pioneer in a process so beneficent and of appa- 
rently magical results, would be felt as no small honour 
to those who respire their happiness in the popular favour 
and applause. To Philip Price it was simply a source of 
benevolent satisfaction, in contemplating the good he had 
aided in accomplishing, of which his eye took a wide 
survey, from the porch of his mansion ; but the obligation 
was not forgotten by his neighbours, in after years, when 
the members of the Chester County Agricultural Society 
elected him its first President. 

The results of the experiments of P. Price in the use 
of plaster, as communicated in 1796, in answer to the 
queries of Judge Peters, were that on a high loamy soil 



GYPSUM. 21 

it operated better than on low-lying clay ground ; one to 
one-and-a-half bushels per acre are sufficient, repeated 
yearly while in clover ; the effect is good with or without 
recent ploughing; is without liability to leave the soil 
exhausted, as from the effect of a stimulus, where the 
product is returned in manure ; that it is most beneficially 
applied to Indian corn and red clover, — but usefully to 
other grasses and grain crops ; and may be used advanta- 
geously with or without other manuring, and with most 
striking effect, if not immediately preceded by other 
manure. The best time to strew it is at the first harrow- 
ing of Indian corn, and on clover, with a small quantity 
soon after it comes up, to be repeated as soon as vegeta- 
tion takes place in the spring; this giving a stimulus 
when most needed. The effect is most visible on a poor 
soil, — eight acres sowed plentifully with it without other 
manure, in five years became, says P. Price, "worth ten 
times what it was before I plastered it, the face of the 
soil appearing to be entirely changed, and is admired by 
all who have hitherto known it •" but though now (1852) 
in a high state of cultivation, the same article is annually 
used with decided advantage, on the same farm. 

Early in life it became a manifested duty of Divine 
requisition unto Rachel Price, that she should make a 
public appearance in the ministry. Though it was a well 
settled doctrine of the Society of Friends that the gift 
of the Gospel ministry is not confined to either sex, yet 



22 CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 

so heavily did the weight of responsibility rest upon her 
mind that she diligently sought the Scriptures to find 
authority for exemption from the service, and consequent 
relief of mind. From the writings of the Apostle Paul 
the desired exoneration might perhaps have been gathered, 
if the strength of conviction and sense of obligation had 
been less powerful. But when she reflected that God is 
no respecter of persons, that His spirit is given to all, 
and that woman and man, are " heirs together of the 
grace of life," she could not doubt that she was equally 
under the command — " freely ye have received, freely 
give." 

Under the solemn impressions made upon her mind 
when attending the funeral of an ancient friend, it was 
manifested to her — "now is the acceptable time ;" and in 
a broken voice she was enabled to declare — " God is a 
spirit, and they that worship him aright must worship 
Him in spirit and in truth, for it is such that He seeketh 
to worship Him;" and she found in obedience the reward 
of peace. Again she doubted and questioned her own 
mission or that of any female appearing in the ministry ; 
when Deborah Darby and Rebecca Young, English 
Friends, visited the meeting, and the former spoke so 
clearly to the subject and her condition of mind as to 
remove all doubting ; so that late in life she was enabled 
to testify that — " I have never at any time since been 
tempted to question the propriety of women's preaching, 



WOMAN'S PREACHING. 23 

fully believing in the declaration that male and female 
are one in Christ. My merciful Lawgiver and Judge, 
who knew that my heart was not altogether stubborn, 
but rather feared the putting forth my hand to the Ark 
unbidden, condescended to manifest His presence by 
breaking and handing forth a little of his Heavenly 
bread ; and I was enabled again to taste of his goodness, 
and praise His Holy name as on the banks of deliverance ; 
but with fear and trembling, lest I should add to or take 
away from what He should command." "Those dear 
Friends visited and had precious opportunity under our 
roof. Deborah, after saying a good deal to encourage us, 
particularly addressed herself to me, saying, 'Why art 
thou discouraged on account of the smallness of thy gift 
in the ministry ? Doest thou not know that five words 
fitly spoken in season are better than five thousand with- 
out life ? It is by being faithful in the little, that we have 
the promise of being made rulers over more/ These 
excellent remarks encouraged me then, and often since 
have afforded me instruction and strength." 

In yielding to the sacrifices to be made in the discharge 
of her ministerial duties, she always had the support and 
encouragement of her husband. Both equally understood 
their proper relationship in respect to the conditions of 
this life, and in respect to obligations above all human 
control. In all that related to earthly affairs, free con- 
sultation and sympathetic aid subsisted, without inter- 



24 WOMAN'S PREACHING. 

ference with the assigned duties of the head; and also in 
spiritual concerns the like freedom of communion and 
interchange of feeling cemented their happiness, but with 
an implicit deference to the higher sanction of a Spirit- 
ual authorization to either. This harmonious sympathy 
and mutual deference imparted a moral and religious 
beauty to their life ) and made it not only an example, 
but a happy illustration, as the natural fruit of the prin- 
ciples of their religious profession. The wife whose mind 
is truly impressed with the sense of religious obligation 
will not fail in her deference to her husband in temporal 
matters, — and the husband in like manner impressed 
could not presume to control the spiritual exercises and 
powers of the wife, for which, as an immortal being, she 
is accountable to the Almighty. Under this paramount 
sanction, her life of religious thought and prayerful devo- 
tion to her Creator, brings her upon a perfect equality 
with man, and the history of the Society of Friends has 
been adorned with many instances in which woman has 
excelled in the powers of persuasive conviction and true 
religious eloquence. Apart from the gifts of natural 
talent and spiritual endowment, she ever addresses hearers 
prone to believe in her superior purity of life and thought, 
her greater sincerity of belief, warmth of affection, and 
more ardent devotional piety. This condition of the 
hearer is the best commencement to persuasion — and 
under it the guarded, perhaps hardened heart, admits more 



LESSON OF INSTRUCTION. 25 

readily the divine visitation that leads to condemnation, 
repentance, and submission. 

An early lesson of instruction to our mother, which 
remained with her through life, and is left for her children, 
was derived in this wise : She had heard John Simp- 
son very instructively in the ministry, and particularly 
so in explaining the mysteries of the Revelations; and 
on an expected visit from him, looked forward to it as an 
occasion of spiritual instruction in respect to the sublime 
truths, which had so interestingly engaged his mind in 
the ministry. She was disappointed to find him drawn 
to speak familiarly of his farming operations, and to ab- 
stain from those high and serious matters her own mind 
was dwelling upon : and among other things he narrated 
was the occurrence of a disorderly contest among his 
hands in the harvest field, whereby they injured his 
wheat. He started to arrest their proceedings, determined 
to turn some of them out of the field in a hurry, but was 
himself arrested in the way by a voice which inwardly 
spoke to him in the language, "John, govern thyself be- 
fore thou art rightly qualified to govern others." He sat 
down until his own mind was quieted, then went to the 
men, addressed them upon the impropriety and ingrati- 
tude of wasting the grain bountifully bestowed for our 
sustenance by a merciful Creator ; and was heard with 
respect and submission, all steadily resuming their work. 
Our mother concluded this to be the lesson she most 



26 RELIGIOUS JOURNEY. 

stood in need of as one of the heads of a large family 
of various dispositions, saying, "I felt the necessity of 
keeping self under proper control in order for the right 
regulation of those about me ; and the incident was often 
recurred to in silence for my own improvement, and 
sometimes recommended to others for their advantage." 

One of the earliest occasions of prolonged absence of 
either from home on a religious journey, apparent from 
their correspondence, was the accompaniment by Philip 
Price of Charity Cook, and Susanna Hollingsworth, of 
South Carolina, on a visit to the meetings of the Society 
in Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, during the severe 
winter of 1796-97. The crossing of the mountains was 
then a difficult task, not free from danger. He writes 
from Virginia : "I wish thee may be favoured to bear 
with patience my absence, being in hopes it is still right 
for me to go on with them, however trying it may be. 
I feel an earnest desire of being found in my allotment 
(of duty). I have had some heavy exercises to pass 
through since I have been from home, both on my own 
account and on that of the Society, but I have endea- 
voured to come into a state of resignation, wherein I now 
enjoy a good degree of peace of mind. * * I could 
write a good deal more, but must decline at present, as it 
is so cold the ink freezes in my pen, although near a good 
fire." From Redstone he wrote, " Way has been wonder- 
fully made for us to get along, without meeting with any 



RELIGIOUS JOURNEY. 27 

accident or injury, yet not without great dangers, wherein 
we have experienced that Preserving Power to he near in 
our greatest straits, who I have no douht has called for 
the present dedication. My faith has never been more 
closely tried, I believe, on any occasion. " * * * "I 
have no doubt but thou feels thy situation lonesome and 
often trying in my absence, but I have a hope thou art 
preserved in patience and submission to the Will of Him 
to whom we ought to submit in all things, and let these 
trials work for our further refinement and purification." 
* * "I often remember my dear children, and have no 
doubt of thy care over them, which makes me feel easy 
on their account. Oh that they may be preserved in 
innocency and virtue, which I hope will be more our 
concern for them than anything besides in this fading 
world." On their return journey he again writes, u the 
labour of my dear devoted companions has been close and 
searching in most places where our lot has been cast, but 
they have been enabled to discharge their duty so as to 
pass along with much peace of mind, of which I am 
sometimes favoured to partake a share in feeling a silent 
travail for Zion's prosperity. There appear to be many 
in most places who depend upon the labours of the faith- 
ful traveller, and neglect the work in themselves, which 
makes me fear the things which belong to their peace 
will be hid from them. It has been a baptising time to 
the churches in many places, but mournful to behold the 



28 RELIGIOUS JOURNEY. 

little fruit that is brought forth to the praise of the 
Great Husbandman, who has so freely sent forth His 
labourers. I often feel my mind deeply impressed in be- 
holding the low state of things amongst us, and under 
discouragement when I behold how many things are suf- 
fered to eclipse the beauty that would shine more and 
more from amongst us, were we to live up to what we are 
called, and what we profess to believe." * * " I often 
wish for thy dear company in these closely trying seasons, 
which I have often met with, thou knowest, when we were 
together, and have been increasingly my lot since we 
parted. But when I come to a state of resignation I am 
favoured for a time to feel a degree of peace, which is 
what I have longed to experience more than any other 
enjoyment in this world, and it is to be preferred to every- 
thing besides." The responses of his beloved wife 
breathed the same deep religious dedication and sympa- 
thizing affection. " My anxiety for thy preservation is 
at times past description, though at some times I am 
favoured with resignation and patience to bear thy long 
absence from me with more fortitude than I expected. I 
feel my mind measurably supported under it at this time, 
yet often, very often, forcibly feel the want of thy tender, 
sympathizing, and endearing company, in my present 
trying situation." 

A lasting friendship was formed between these travel- 
lers, who had moved together in that " unity of spirit 



YELLOW FEVER. 29 

which is the bond of peace." A correspondence ensued 
after Charity's return, and while on a visit to Europe, in 
the affectionate terms of a mother to a son, by which 
title she addressed him. 

In the fall of 1798, the yellow fever prevailed with 
great fatality in the city of Philadelphia. In their 
humane efforts to relieve the sick and dying, Philip's 
brother Isaac Price (a member of the Board of Health), 
was prostrated with the disease, and his brother-in-law, 
Edward G-arrigues, exposed to imminent danger in 
attending the sick. These were both remarkable men. 
Isaac was of a happy and joyous temperament, and his 
gayety a degree beyond what his more sober brethren 
could fully sympathize with ; but not less innocent, 
humane, and devoted to the high calls of duty, to which 
at this period his life fell a sacrifice. Edward, of a 
French descent, possessed extraordinary physical energy, 
courage, and force of character, to young, superficial ob- 
servers, apparently uncongenial to the mild and subdued 
character of the Friend. Yet he bowed with implicit 
submission to the power of religion, owned its gentle in- 
fluences on the heart, and was ever ready to serve with 
alacrity and zeal the cause of truth and humanity, and 
to extend hospitality and aid in the progress of those 
travelling in the ministry and service of the Church. 
Responding 9 mo. 10, to a letter from Philip Price, 

"truly consoling" and acknowledging a " tender sympa- 
3* 



30 YELLOW FEVER. 

thy," he writes, "Our brother Isaac is in a quiet, com- 
posed frame * * his mind evidently striving for 
best support ;" and on the 15th, " Our dear Isaac is con- 
siderably better in health, and I hope is likely to be 
raised up once more as a monument of Divine mercy, 
and that he with many more may not only be willing to 
sing His praise, as on the banks of deliverance, but also 
remember His marvellous works." * * "I hope your 
benevolent minds, who have been engaged for the accom- 
modation of the distressed citizens of this once highly 
favoured city, may enjoy in this lot the hundred fold of 
peace, and joy unmixed in a never ending eternity." 
The improvement that gave hope in the morning was but 
the prelude of the approaching dissolution that took 
place on the evening of the same day, as announced in a 
subsequent letter. " It hath pleased the Almighty Fa- 
ther of Mercies to release the spirit of our dear Isaac 
this evening. He was favoured with much composure, 
and an easy passage, I trust to everlasting rest." Next 
morning at 7 o'clock, he adds, "I have just returned 
from attending the last office to our brother. * * Dear 
Stephen Grellet, the sure friend of distress, and most ex- 
cellent nurse, not only attending our brother with the 
assiduity of a near connexion, but at this early hour I 
found he was most willing to accompany me to the grave. 
His company in my family I hope and trust will add a 
blessing by his exemplary deportment." On the 29th he 



AN INCIDENT. 31 

further writes, " It has pleased the great / Am to miti- 
gate this dreadful pestilence, which has hurried more than 
three thousand soiils into a boundless eternity." * * 
" The sweet solacing comfort in some of the chambers 
where I have attended has never been exceeded, at any 
former period of my life. Oh, that I may, with many, 
very many more, improve under the awful dispensation !" 
Again, a month later, he says, " Oh, that the sufferings 
of the present day may soften my hard heart, so as to 
make a lasting impression, and not be as the morning 
cloud which soon passeth away." 

An anecdote illustrative of the fearless character of 
Edward G-arrigues is in traditional remembrance in the 
family, which may be more easily excused by Friends as 
occurring while he was yet a young man. An American 
officer during the revolution, in the entry of Cook's build- 
ing at Third and High streets, undertook to abuse the 
Quakers in general and his father-in-law Philip Price in 
particular, as Tories, for which Edward took him to task, 
and reminded him how often Philip Price had fed him 
and the American soldiers with tubs of soup in his 
orchard at the Swedes' Church, Kingsessing. The officer's 
temper got roused as he was worsted in the argument, 
and he drew his sword on Edward, who instantly wrested 
it from his grasp, and seizing the officer by the waistband, 
pitched him over the lower half-door then in use, sprawl- 
ing into the street, much to the amusement of the soldiers 



32 VISIT OF JOHN HALL. 

who witnessed the feat. It is not related whether this 
circumstance led the officer into serious reflection and 
amendment of conduct, but certain it was that he after- 
wards reformed, became convinced of Friends' principles, 
and an eminent minister in the Society. 

The loss by death of one brother and the failure in 
business soon afterwards of the other, increased the care 
and anxiety of Philip Price, junior, as the next friend 
and protector of their families ; and he discharged his 
duty as such towards them, and to others later in life 
having like claims, faithfully, affectionately, and Hberally, 
and transmitted as an inheritance the like duty and obli- 
gation to that daughter who had lived with him and most 
immediately represented him in position, as she also did 
in disposition, and a kind and considerate care and con- 
cern for all who had claims as relatives and friends. 

In the years 1800 and 1801, John Hall, an English 
minister, was a frequent inmate in the family of P. and B. 
Price, and his cheerful temper and pleasant humour 
made his company as acceptable to the children, as were 
his religious experience and instructive conversation 
grateful to their parents. At considerable sacrifice in 
leaving a young and numerous family, P. Price accom- 
panied him in his visits to the meetings of Friends in the 
eastern part of Pennsylvania, as far as Muncy, Catawissa, 
&c, into the State of Delaware, and part of New Jersey. 
These occasions of absence are spoken of as seasons of 



VISIT OF JOHN HALL. 33 

trial, but in the end rewarded with the feeling of peace 
resulting from the discharge of apprehended duty. 'He 
writes, " I do not know that I ever left home with my 
mind under more embarrassments, but have since been 
favoured to get into a more quiet and resigned state of 
mind, and I believe I never experienced a time wherein 
I felt a greater necessity of putting my trust in that 
Power which is able to carry us through every trying dis- 
pensation we may meet with." " Dear John has been 
much favoured, being more enlarged than I have known 
him at any time before. The number of Friends (in 
Delaware) is generally small at each meeting, but many 
other people often attend, to whom the call seems much to 
be extended." From New York, 4 mo. 15, 1802, John 
Hall wrote, " I expect by this time thou hast heard of 
my coming to this place under a prospect of embarking 
for my native land, and can now inform thee, that through 
an humble attention to the pointings of the Great Shep- 
herd of Israel, I have been favoured to see the right time 
to leave this country, I think in as clear a point of view 
as I did to come here, which I esteem a great favour, 
among many others I have been made a partaker of. 
Though my trials have been many, and in depths often, 
yet I have no cause to complain, but in humility of heart 
set up my Ebenezer, and say, Hitherto the Lord hath 
helped me. It felt solemn to my mind in parting with 
thee and thy beloved wife, to whom I have felt my mind 



34 VISIT OF JOHN HALL. 

nearly united in the near bonds of gospel fellowship, and 
though we are parted one from another, yet are often 
present in spirit and in epistles written on the fleshly 
tablets of the heart, by the blessed Head of the Church. 
As He and His Father are one, even so we are one in the 
Covenant of Life, being made partakers of the same 
spiritual bread. My leaving the city (of Philadelphia) 
was a solemn time to me, and I rejoiced in being favoured 
with so many united and concurring testimonies from my 
dear friends in that place, that I left them in the right 
time ; and their prayers for my preservation were as mar- 
row to my bones. There is a precious remnant in your 
parts to whom I feel my mind nearly united : May the 
Lord preserve them as in the hollow of His holy hand." 
In the retrospect of his American travels and service, 
John Hall wrote from "Broughton, 11 mo. 16,1803 — 
Beloved friend (Philip Price) — Although about eighteen 
months have passed over since I conversed with thee 
through the medium of my pen, yet I can assure thee 
that my love and affectionate regard for thee, thy dear 
Rachel, and beloved children, is not the least abated or 
worn out ; for I can tell thee that by my fireside, and 
when in my bed, my mind frequently takes its flight over 
the great Atlantic Ocean, to visit many of my dear 
Friends; and thy habitation often has a large share. I 
often call to mind the many pleasant days and nights I 
spent with you and your beloved children. It was truly 



WEST-TOWN SCHOOL. 35 

a place of rest to the sole of my foot, because I found 
the Sun of Peace to be there. May you, my dear friends, 
be so far preserved as still to be in the abodes of peace. 
This will make amends for all. I believe you have your 
trials and exercises as well as others for the Truth's sake, 
and happy are they who continue with the Blaster in his 
afflictions. I believe the same promise that was formerly 
made to his disciples will be your reward — l Ye are they 
who have continued with me in my tribulations, and I 
appoint unto you a kingdom/ " * * * 

Towards the close of the last century, the Yearly Meet- 
ing of the Society of Friends, held in Philadelphia, had 
come to the resolution of establishing a Boarding School 
at West-Town, for the better and guarded education of 
the youth of the Society. In the year 1795, Philip Price 
was appointed one of the committee, which had charge 
of the construction, opening, and supervision of the insti- 
tution. In this capacity he continued to devote much of 
his time from his first appointment until the year 1818, 
when Philip and Rachel Price were appointed the Super- 
intendents, in which offices they remained until 1830, 
making a connected service of thirty-five years for the 
welfare of that School. There were educated successively 
all their ten children, commencing with the day of its 
opening in 1799 ] and to it those children owed nearly 
all that they received of an education beyond the primary 
instruction of the country schools. The course of studies 



36 WEST-TOWN SCHOOL. 

did not then extend to the languages, but it was so much 
more and better than that then prevalent in the country 
as to be an invaluable blessing to them, and to the large 
numbers who have been educated there, numbering gene- 
rally about two hundred of both sexes at a time, through 
now over half a century. The value of the instruction 
derived at this seminary has been of incalculable service 
to the members of the Society of Friends, putting them 
generally in advance of others in otherwise equal circum- 
stances, for intelligence, respectability of character, and 
power of usefulness. And though the immediate benefit 
be exclusively to members of the Society, the remote ad- 
vantages have been widely diffusive through many of the 
States of the Union, not only from the number of edu- 
cated citizens sent forth to mix as active members of the 
community, but by multiplying good teachers to spread 
largely the benefits of education. How much the Society 
of Friends have thus been the benefactors of the country 
it would be difficult to over-estimate, and it is a stream 
of beneficence that flows in perpetuity. 

It was during the superintendence of Philip and 
Rachel Price, that some of the local improvements of the 
property were commenced, that have been since greatly 
advanced in the laying out of walks and planting of trees, 
now become groves of ample size, for shade and scenery ; 
in keeping with the beautiful and varied landscapes that 
surround this quiet retreat of learning. But it was the 



RELIGIOUS JOURNEY. 37 

moral and religious government of the household, com- 
posed of teachers, caretakers, assistants, and pupils, in 
which their usefulness was chiefly conspicuous. It was 
in consonance with the views of the Society and with 
their own characters — mild, considerate, and parental. 
All found there the best comfort and solace in their 
separation from parents and home — affectionate and sym- 
pathizing protectors and friends ; and departing thence, 
they carried with them into the world an affectionate re- 
membrance to be retained through life. It thus occurred, 
from this long superintendence of West-Town, and after- 
wards of their own school at West Chester, that few 
persons have become the object of affectionate attachment 
and personal regard to so many individuals. 

In the 7th month, 1801, Rachel Price joined Sarah 
Newlin in a visit to the meetings and families of Friends 
in the Southern Quarter, in Delaware and the Eastern 
Shore of Maryland. Discouragement attended her out- 
set. " My mind was very much tried and borne down 
with the prospect of being so long separated from thee 
and our dear children, and remained so until I came to 
Duck Creek Meeting, where I felt almost ready to shrink 
and turn about homewards, when this language was lov- 
ingly presented to my mind — ! Thy Maker shall be thy 
husband' — which proved a real consolation to my poor 
lost mind. Oh, may it be my greatest concern to endea- 
vour to keep low, and experience my own will brought 
4 



38 RELIGIOUS JOURNEY. 

into subjection, and thereby experience His divine pre- 
sence to be near, for verily without Him we can do 
nothing as we ought to do, and mayest thou find Him to 
be thy support and stay in my absence, and may His holy 
arm be round about and preserve our tender offspring 
from harm." And of later date, " The thought of being 
detained so long from home seemed almost more than my 
nature could bear, * * yet I believe that there is no 
cause of dismay, as the service seems to be owned by the 
Master." " My dear children, you may be ready to con- 
clude that my love for you is not very great, or I could 
not leave you so long : but let me tell you that I never 
felt the tender ties of nature more forcibly, than since my 
absence from you. How often has my mind been raised 
in secret supplication to the Father and Fountain of all 
our blessings, that He may be pleased to preserve you as 
in the hollow of his Divine hand ) yea, oftener than the 
returning morning." And again — "Although I feel 
very much tried at times on account of my being so long 
separated from my endeared connexions, whom I feel in- 
creasingly dear to me in my absence, yet am I favoured 
to experience my mind so strengthened and supported 
through the various dispensations I have had to pass 
through, as to induce me to believe that I am in my place 
in thus giving up. Although we feel ourselves poor 
weak things, to be thus engaged and often have to go 
down unto suffering, as I believe, with the seed, which 



RELIGIOUS JOURNEY. 39 

lies low and oppressed in many minds, yet we find a 
little remnant in every place, which our hearts can unite 
with and encourage. Although weakness is often our 
portion, yet blessed be that Holy Arm of Power which 
we have found to be near for our help in the needful time 
of trial." 

She received in response from her husband this encou- 
ragement : — " Although thy company thee knows would 
be very desirable at home, I hope thou wilt be favoured 
to be easy about us until thy mind is at full liberty to 
return with peace. I have been so far much preserved 
in the patience, beyond what I expected, and I hope I 
shall be favoured so to continue until the right time for 
thee to return." * * " Let us be content to drink the 
cup that is allotted us, if we are persuaded it is the 
Will of the Great Master, however trying, as the alone 
way to peace of mind. I hope thou art faithfully given 
up to do thy part of the work, not looking too much at 
thy own littleness, remembering that from those that had 
not great offerings to make, a turtle dove or young pigeons 
were accepted." Similar encouragement is repeated in 
later letters. " Having set thy hand to the work it will 
not do to look back, otherwise thou wilt lose the reward 
which I believe those are favoured to experience who are 
faithfully given up to do in true sincerity of heart. The 
work in which you are engaged, I have no doubt, is great 
and arduous, and thou art often looking to thy own weak- 



40 MINISTERS AND ELDERS. 

ness and inability, but I trust that He that has required 
this at your hands will preserve and carry you through 
every trial and discouraging prospect. * * Then, I 
trust, thy peace will flow as a river, and His living pre- 
sence be felt to dispel the gloomy clouds which have often 
gathered and been ready to break over thy head, and over- 
whelm as in the deep." Further letters acknowledged 
the kindness of Friends visited, and that the service of 
the travellers "was all to pretty good satisfaction/ ' 
" strength being mercifully given to relieve their minds." 

Sarah Newlin returned home apparently well, but with 
the seeds of disease in her system, as on the day after 
her arrival she was attacked with bilious fever. Our 
parents hastened to her, found her in a sweet and sub- 
missive state of mind : she declared her work was done, 
and after severe bodily suffering, within a week of her 
return, her life fell a sacrifice to her devotion in the ser- 
vice of her Creator. 

It was about the year 1792, that Rachel Price first 
appeared in the ministry. After a period of probation 
her service was approved ; and some notes left by her 
manifest the feelings that accompanied the event. " My 
friends of the Monthly Meeting of Concord thought it 
right to acknowledge and recommend me to the Quarterly 
Meeting of Ministers and Elders, as an approved minis- 
ter. A minute to that effect was furnished the Select 
Quarterly Meeting, in the 4th month, 1802. I attended 



MINISTERS AND ELDERS. 41 

that meeting in the 5th month, when the language of en- 
couragement was handed forth by our valuable friend 
Eli Yarnall, in his usually impressive and affectionate 
manner. I considered it a privilege to he permitted to 
sit with those to whom I felt so nearly united, and to 
become associated with and placed more particularly un- 
der their care : but I found my exercise and concern not 
diminished thereby, nor my ability increased, — neither 
were my besetments lessened, by becoming incorporated 
with such valuable companions. After attending several 
meetings of the kind, and feeling rather disappointed, as 
I supposed if all were as good as I thought we ought to 
be before we were admitted to the Select Meeting, we 
might expect these to be Heavenly Communions without 
earthly interruptions, — and querying in my own mind 
why these meetings were sometimes so lifeless, even more 
so than the large mixed assemblies, Samuel Smith, of 
Philadelphia, arose and spoke very interestingly. He 
said, — ' We are informed in the Book of Job, that when 
the sons of God came to present themselves before the 
Lord, Satan came also among them ; and he believed there 
was not a station or situation that a man can attain unto 
in this life, beyond the assaults of the enemy of our 
souls' salvation; hence the necessity of the sacred in- 
junction to all to watch and pray lest ye enter into 
temptation : that it is no sin to be tempted, but it is by 

, obedience to temptation that we commit sin.' He ap- 
4* 



42 MINISTERS AND ELDERS. 

prehended there might be present individuals who had 
not been long admitted to that meeting, and might have 
expected there would be but little to interrupt the wor- 
ship in spirit and in truth. He thought it was in the 
ordering of Best Wisdom, if it was often permitted to be 
otherwise, that we might feel our own weakness and de- 
pendence ; that of ourselves we can do nothing to ad- 
vance the cause of righteousness on the earth ; that no 
flesh might glory in its own perfection, but that we might 
lie low in the abasement of self, so that He, whose right 
it is to rule and reign in our hearts, may direct according 
to his pleasure. If we who compose this part of the 
Society, were permitted generally to partake of the effu- 
sions of Divine love and regard, we might be induced 
to think that we had attained a higher state of perfection 
than our fellow members, and thereby become exalted in 
our own imaginations, ascribing that to the creature which 
only and alone belongeth to the Creator. This communi- 
cation was very instructive and interesting to my inexpe- 
rienced mind at the time, and strengthening when recurred 
to since. The substance yet remains fresh upon my 
memory (at the age of seventy), and I am willing to put 
it upon record and leave it, hoping that it may afford 
some comfort to some tried and discouraged minds when 
I am gone." 

For some weeks in 1802, Philip Price travelled with 
Richard Mott, of New York, visiting the meetings of 



RELIGIOUS JOURNEY EAST. 43 

Friends in the south-eastern counties of Pennsylvania. 

The services of this ministering Friend are described as 
having been very close upon the unfaithful, in instances 
producing deep contrition, but unproductive of full relief 
to the mind of the faithful labourer, who apprehended be 
had passed by some meetings that he should have taken 
in his course. During this and other absences of her 
husband, Rachel Price directed the business of the house- 
hold and farm with jud^nent, and was concerned to 
attend the meetings with the children, taking with her 
" seven or eight of them," a distance of two miles to 
Birmingham. 

During the spring of 1804, Sarah Talbot and Rachel 
Price made a religious visit among Friends in Middle and 
East New Jersey. Leaving Philadelphia under discou- 
ragement, the latter wrote, " With health not very good, 
yet my mind enjoys such a comfortable degree of quietude 
in the belief that I am in the way of my duty, that I 
have scarce language to describe the different feelings of 
my mind now." * * li We are permitted sometimes 
to partake as it were of a brook by the way-side, whereby 
we are encouraged to move forward in the ability received, 
to the relief of our own minds." In the spring of 1805, 
they continued their travels together among Friends of 
South or West New Jersey : At Salem, met with John 
Simpson, Thomas Scattergood, " and many other precious 
Friends. I felt myself a poor thing amongst them, as 



44 RELIGIOUS JOURNEY EAST. 

thou inayest suppose, yet am favoured at times from a 
degree of experience to acknowledge that in His presence 
there is life, and at His right hand there are rivers of 
pleasure forevennore." " "We have been at meeting every 
day but one since we left home. Surely, some may say, 
we might be very good by this time, if going to meeting 
would make us so ) but if we are but made sensible from 
time to time, that we are in the way of Divine appoint- 
ment, and suffered to partake of even the fragments of 
the true bread, after witnessing it to be broken amongst 
us, so that we may know that we do indeed live, I believe 
we shall be satisfied. " At Egg-Harbour, R. Price pro- 
bably first saw the ocean, with the lively sensibility and 
reverential emotion with which the great works of the 
Creator ever impressed her sensitive mind. " I am seated 
at the window, delighted with beholding the waves of the 
sea continually rolling, wave after wave, and breaking on 
the shore. Oh, how awfully majestic, — how great the 
power, that hath set bounds even to the sea, and said 
' thus far shalt thou go and no farther : There shall thy 
proud waves be stayed.' He hath placed the sand for the 
bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot 
pass it ; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, 
yet can they not prevail ; though they roar, yet can they 
not pass over it." 

The journey was pursued to satisfaction, but under 
circumstances of trial and discouragement to the partner 



RELIGIOUS JOURNEY EAST. 45 

left at home. She writes, " I have found my mind very 
much resigned to my present allotment, whether in 
heights or in depths, so that I am hut made sensible that 
I am in my place, and through Divine favour I may say 
(I trust without boasting) that I have from time to time 
felt the reward of sweet peace, which is all I crave for 
myself, hoping that thou wilt be made a partaker of a 
large share in thus giving me up." He, under the be- 
setting trials, exclaims, — " Oh ! patience and resignation 
to Divine allotments, how much do I still want of their 
influence to bring all into subjection, and be able to say, 
' not my will, but Thine be done in all things V and to bear 
crosses and adversity with the same calmness and fortitude 
as if all prospered, and was to our outward desires. Per- 
haps it is best for me to feel the hand of adversity and dis- 
appointment, lest I should grow forgetful and lose the sense 
of a grateful mind for the favours that are enjoyed." 
And again, — "I believe I have felt thee to be as near 
and precious to my life as at any time of it ; indeed, our 
separation, I think, has felt more trying. I have been 
almost afraid to put my pen to paper to communicate 
with thee, lest I might imprudently drop something that 
might do more harm than hearing from us would give 
comfort, as it has not been my allotment to be much re- 
freshed with the stream of consolation since thy absence : 
but enough, lest I now commit the error I have been 
afraid of." 



48 HOME REMINISCENCES. 

An interval occurs in the preserved correspondence un- 
til the year 1807, when the next journey in a religious 
service, was undertaken. The recollections of the writer, 
though then young, extend back to this period. He was 
then and for some years after, in jconformity with the 
practice of making all the children actively useful, assist- 
ing in the business of the farm. Though frequently 
taken from home by the calls of the Society of Friends, 
meeting the School Committee, &c, yet upon all urgent 
occasions, and in matters requiring skill and judgment, 
Philip Price was an important workman on his plantation. 
With his own hand he sowed the grain, the grass seeds, and 
plaster, — struck the furrow for planting and drilling ; 
ploughed and harrowed the corn ; and pitched the hay 
and grain sheaves at harvest, with an elasticity of muscle 
and endurance of fatigue that few could equal. He was 
a practical farmer, of efficient energy, and sound judg- 
ment, skilled in the choice and management of stock; 
and an experienced grazier lately told the writer that he 
had received from him his first and best lessons in the 
selection of cattle. He had a capacity to make riches, 
but he preferred to educate his numerous family ; to fulfil 
the higher duties he believed he owed to his Creator \ and 
to keep the tempting cares and ambition of the world 
beneath his feet. 

It was about this period, that P. Price, with one of his 
daughters, made a journey into Virginia, to procure the 



HOME REMINISCENCES. 47 

seed of the Virginia thorn. These were the commence- 
ment of the beautiful thorn hedges that have since so 
much prevailed on and in the neighbourhood of his farms, 
dividing the rolling country of the Brandywine hills into 
fields of luxuriant grass or waving grain, which when 
ripening for the harvest, make a striking contrast with 
the green and neatly trimmed borders. The view of this 
scene from Osborn's hill, or similar elevations, can never 
fail to inspire a sentiment of love for our commonwealth, 
its happy and prosperous people, — and of gratitude to 
the bountiful Creator, who has spread plenty over the 
land and clothed it in surpassing beauty. 

In order to keep the farm free from weeds', it was a 
constant practice of Philip Price, to pull up the docks, 
mulleins, cockle, thistles, &c, by the roots, before the seed 
ripened for a new growth ; and it was a rule with him 
not to pass by such a weed without eradicating it, where- 
by the task was lessened each year, and the plantation 
freed from such mischievous intrusion ) and for a like 
reason the parental care of both father and mother, was 
constantly watchful to eradicate all noxious weeds as they 
appeared to take growth in the minds of their children, 
before they got firm root, or went to seed for a new crop, 
and to sow good seed in their stead, and nourish the 
growth of good plants, to keep under those of a delete- 
rious nature, and by the like continued watchfulness and 



48 HOME REMINISCENCES. 

care the task came to be less needed on the part of the 
religiously concerned parents. 

The household arrangements were upon the footing of a 
republican simplicity. The best of plain food was pro- 
vided for all, and ordinarily all, employers and employed, 
sat down to the same table : nor was there any loss of 
respect sustained by this equality of treatment ; but on 
the contrary, a salutary influence, and parental constraint, 
conducive to discipline and order, not repulsive to inno- 
cent cheerfulness, were accompanied by a feeling and 
confidence that the welfare of all was cared for and pro- 
tected. 

No spirituous liquor was used on the farm, though the 
practice prevailed among others than Friends. In the 
cause of temperance, peace principles, and anti-slavery, 
the Friends had effectually done their work, wisely and 
prudently, generations before the modern zeal displayed 
upon these subjects; and all true Friends then, before, 
and ever since, have availed themselves of all suitable 
opportunities to advance their humane testimonies on 
these subjects, upon those in authority and among the 
people. Their progress was steady — carried forward by 
the process of persuasion and conviction — and sustained 
by the power of consistent example. It, therefore, knew 
no relapse or reaction, as occurs when partisan zeal be- 
comes cooled, and excitement subsides. Their testimonies 
upon these subjects of human reform, Friends are bound 



FUGITIVE SLAVES. 49 

by their Discipline to ever uphold and maintain, and so 
long as they shall remain true Friends, must they carry 
on the good works, faithfully, consistently, and steadily, 
not only to preserve themselves free from taint and in- 
firmity, but to be the perpetual warners and reformers of 
mankind. May they ever persevere in their good and 
glorious mission in the way that they have so long per- 
severed, having made their lesson effective by beginning 
at home, and then presenting their example to enforce 
their reasonings and persuasions. It is true this practice 
may not produce sudden demonstrations of success, but it 
more than compensates by its mildness, constancy, and 
endurance, and it is the course most consistent with the 
character of Friends, because in their conduct and teach- 
ing they are ever bound to exercise that wisdom which is 
peaceful and long-suffering, temperate, kind, and charita- 
ble. The first example to mankind of admonition and 
judgment, was not hasty or violent, but the voice of the 
Lord was heard as he walked " in the garden in the cool 
of the day" — and it was without any sharp accusation, 
woundingly to produce rebellious recoil. 

Among the reminiscences of the plantation, is the fact 
of the frequent visits and sojourns there of coloured peo- 
ple, in fear and distress, fleeing in pursuit of liberty. 
They ever found there shelter, sympathy and aid, those 
claims of humanity which, though it might be penal to 

recognise, no true Friends could deny. Slavery, origi- 
5 



50 FUGITIVE SLAVES. 

nating in the captivity of war, fraud, or oppression, 
could in their view gain no valid sanction by lapse of time 
or the authority of human law, when thus based on error 
and injustice. Yet neither by sentiment nor deed would 
they countenance any act to weaken the general authority 
of established government, on which the security of so 
many invaluable rights of person, property, and reputa- 
tion depend. Win. Penn recognised it as a great end of 
government "to support power in reverence with the peo- 
ple, and to secure the people from the abuse of power/' 
Our civil institutions are habitually recognised by the 
Society as excellent, and deserving their respect and obe- 
dience, and where they cannot conscientiously acquiesce 
in the requisitions of laws that conflict with their testi- 
monies, they patiently submit to the penalty, thus bear- 
ing a willing testimony to principle through sacrifice, in 
the hope that the world may be awakened to see and 
correct all errors that lead to wrong and oppression. 
They are the peaceful champions of the world's reform, 
believing that as truth and righteousness are mighty, 
they will, as the world becomes enlightened, prevail. No 
people so peaceful and conservative can fail to value 
highly the constitution that secures the Union of the 
States, and thereby preserves the domestic tranquillity 
and the peace with foreign powers ; a constitution in 
which all the citizens find their safest anchorage for all 
vested rights and title to property, in the prohibition of 



TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 51 

all state laws that can impair the obligation of contracts. 
It tolerates, it is true, an evil it could not consistently 
name, but it was the best that could, under the circum- 
stances, be formed. Its framers were under a compulsion 
so to form it as to obtain the consent of independent 
slave-holding states, or to abandon the task. The alter- 
natives were disunion, and border wars, insecurity, weak- 
ness, and the final extinction of republican freedom ; 
and Union, with peace, prosperity, strength, and the per- 
petuity of the great example of free institutions, and 
man's power of self-government, on the basis of the 
greatest good of the greatest number. 

The uncompromising hostility of Friends to slavery, is 
not factious, violent, or abusive ; but, proceeding from a 
deep religious and moral conviction of its injustice and 
impolicy, their opposition is based upon an established 
testimony, from the support of which they cannot swerve 
so long as Quakerism shall endure. It is a hostility that 
is patient, resolute, and candid, and speaking in behalf 
of humanity, it is only fearful of doing aught to mar the 
progress of a good work. Pacific in principle, they can 
excite to no violence; Christian in practice, the sword 
must be sheathed; and as the fetters are imposed by 
masters who only can repeal the law, that authorize their 
infliction, the appeal must be made to the public opinion 
of the states which tolerate slavery. That opinion can- 
not be favourably reached by abuse and denunciation, or 



52 TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 

by any method that will arouse the passions,, disturb the 
reason, and array the feelings in hostile reaction. The 
legislator, exercising the prerogative of sovereignty, 
must be reasoned with, to convince his reason, and his 
passions tranquillized, that he may listen to the voice of 
humanity within his own breast. Nearly a hundred 
years ago, John Woolinan, in his tenderly conscientious 
and beautiful writings — [often, and on his death-bed, re- 
commended by Philip Price to the perusal of his child- 
ren] afforded the best example of effective writing upon 
this subject ; and he published in the midst of slave- 
holders without offence, because he calmly addressed that 
reason and humanity, the possession of which no civilized 
men dare to disclaim. Friends have, accordingly, at all 
times kept the door open for friendly entreaty and the 
convincement of the masters ; have securely performed reli- 
gious visits to the South, and held meetings with the 
slaves for religious worship ; but no clandestine conduct 
hostile to legal claims was ever practised there by mem- 
bers of good repute in the Society. To the slaves they 
preached the patient and peaceful religion of the Gospel ; 
to the masters the obligation of kindness and mercy, and 
the duty of doing unto others as they would have others to 
do unto themselves. But it would be to expect quite too 
much to believe that any true Friends should in any man- 
ner aid in the restoration of fugitive slaves, or that they 
would not afford them comfort and facility in their flight. 



ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 53 

Regarding them as fellow beings and co-heirs of immor- 
tality, they admit the obligation towards them to do unto 
fchem as under like circumstances they would be done unto, 
ind thus yield obedience at the same time to the Christian 
and Mosaic Law, the latter declaring that — "thou shalt 
not deliver unto his master the servant which has escaped 
from his master unto thee." But if the master come and 
take his servant, they can offer no resistance. 

The example and influence of Friends, aided by the 
co-operation of a Bryan, Reed, Franklin, Morris, Rush, 
Peters, Rawle, and other philanthropists, led to the abo- 
lition of slavery in Pennsylvania, and the subsequent 
protection of those unlawfully held in bondage. It was 
in the midst of the American revolution that the people 
became awakened to a sympathy for others' woes by 
their own sufferings, and on the 1st of March, 1780, 
was passed a statute the most just, and the preamble 
the most responsive to the voice of humanity, of any 
before placed on the statute book of any nation. Re- 
citing their grateful sense of the aid of the Divine 
Being in the national struggle for liberty, the patriots 
of the revolution conceived it to be their duty, and re- 
joiced that it was in their power, "to extend a portion 
of that freedom to others, which had been extended to 
them;" and feeling their "hearts enlarged with kindness 
and benevolence towards men of all conditions and na- 
tions" — enacted that slaves should be for ever released 



54 RELIGIOUS JOURNEY WEST. 

from thraldom in the State of Pennsylvania. It was a 
peaceful, patient, earnest, yet wise perseverance that led 
to so happy a result, and placed upon the statute book its 
most luminous pages. May the same wise counsels, paci- 
fic and humane spirit, ever continue to plead the cause of 
the oppressed, and lead to further triumphs of humanity, 
— pacific, bloodless, and glorious ! 

In the 6th month, 1807, Mary Witchel, a friend from 
Bradford, England, and Rachel Price, started on a reli- 
gious visit to Friends in Ohio and Virginia, No turnpike 
had then been made across the Allegheny Mountains, and 
the narrow and steep wagon track, in soft places, was cut 
into deep ruts, and in others was rough and stony. The 
women Friends in crossing the mountains were obliged to 
dismount from the carriage and walk, or ride alternately 
the single riding-horse, on a man's saddle, going at the 
rate of two miles an hour. Rachel Price writes, "I 
think it is not possible for any one to conceive how bad 
the roads are, without seeing them. We are preserved in 
good health, and our minds from sinking. My mind when 
crossing the mountains was filled with admiration and 
praise in beholding the wondrous works of an Almighty 
hand." * * " In our preservation we have had often 
to exclaim, Surely these are the Lord's doings, and mar- 
vellous in our eyes. May a grateful sense thereof rest 
on each of our minds, to our own humiliation." " When 
we left Pitt we pursued our journey along the bank of the 



RELIGIOUS JOURNEY WEST. 55 

Ohio, the beautiful river on the left, and on the right a 
mountain, with rocks overhanging our heads, awfully 
majestic to behold. We may say with the poet, — 

' These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, 

Almighty ! Thine this universal frame, 

Thus wondrous fair ; Thyself how wondrous then ; 

Unspeakable, who sitt'st above these heavens 

To us invisible, or dimly seen 

In these thy lowest works ; yet these declare 

Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.' " 

At New G-arden she writes, "We attended Springfield 
yesterday. There is a valuable settlement of Friends 
here in this wilderness country, whom we feel nearly 
united to ; and I may tell thee that I fully believe that I 
am in my place in coming here. Though trying to be 
separated from you at home, yet I feel very comfortable 
in being with our friends here in little cabins." At 
Short Creek — " I received thy first and second letters ; it 
was a feast indeed, to get so much satisfactory informa- 
tion ; but I have been for the most part easier about home 
than I could have expected, having so fully given all up 
to Best Protection and Direction, that I sometimes can 
but wonder that my mind is so relieved from anxiety 
about you. I am truly thankful you have been so pre- 
served, and may we all put our trust in that preserving 
Arm of Power, whose care is even for the sparrow." " I 
have met with many choice friends and relations since I 



56 RELIGIOUS JOURNEY WEST. 

left home, to whom I feel nearly and dearly united, I 
trust in gospel fellowship." A P. S. to this letter re- 
minds us of a constant habit of the writer of it which 
many will recollect, so that at home or abroad, no time 
should be lost : " If you have not sent the yarn, you need 
not send it till you may expect we are in Virginia, as I 
do not knit fast." She would have had more than the 
sublime regret of the Emperor Titus, which has made 
him immortal, — " that he had lost a day." She would 
have regretted the loss of an hour unfilled by some useful 
employment. 

The mails then were slow, " three weeks from Pitts- 
burgh." Four weeks had elapsed, and no letter had 
reached her husband. He writes 21 of 6 mo. " My dear 
love : Another week has passed without hearing any- 
thing from thee, whether you have got along safely or 
not. I did not think I should feel so anxious about 
hearing ; but the expectations thee gave of writing makes 
me feel desirous to hear from thee. I intended to think 
as little about thee as possible, as I was in hopes it might 
be a means of preserving me in patience during thy long 
absence, and no doubt trying journey in many respects ; 
but I think it has been so far to the contrary that I can 
hardly think of anything besides. And how can it be 
otherwise, when thou, who hast been my companion in 
the nearest unity and affection for so many years, art now 
so far separated from me ? but, being as I fully believe 



RELIGIOUS JOURNEY WEST. 57 

in the direction of Best Wisdom, I must not complain 
nor murmur. And I think I have resigned thee, and do 
still, to Divine disposal, though thou art the object of my 
nearest and dearest affection of all earthly enjoyments ; 
yet I have to remember, for the trial of my faith and love, 
that we must part with the most near earthly tie if re- 
quired ; and as our blessed Lord declared, If you love 
anything more than me you are not worthy of me. But 
I have no doubt, my dear love, thou hast also thy feelings 
and exercises about us, and art deeply concerned for our 
welfare, as well as that of those thou art engaged to 
visit in Grospel Love. And may your labours prove bene- 
ficial to many, in strengthening the weak, in confirming 
the feeble-minded, and in alarming such as live too un- 
concernedly about that part which will endure for ever, 
either in happiness or in misery and woe. But if only 
one should be rightly awakened and warned to turn from 
evil ways, and thereby become converted to the truth, 
your labours will not be fruitless, but the blessing of 
Divine approbation and peace will be your crowns, if you 
should be again favoured to return. " Further letters 
evince the same anxious desire to receive information from 
the travellers — " 7 mo. 7, I have had more uneasiness 
and been more uncomfortable than at any time since thou 
left us. I have sent up to West Chester regularly every 
day the stage returned, for two weeks past;" that was 
twice a week ; now there are three arrivals of cars and 



58 RELIGIOUS JOURNEY WEST. 

stage daily, with prospect of an increase. " My health 
has been improving, and I have now to work hard, which 
I stand better than I expected." " Our dear children are 
all doing well, and I am much comforted in them, as the 
elder ones are trying to do the best they can, and I am 
afraid they are almost overdoing the matter sometimes." 

From Wheeling, 7 mo. 24, R. Price writes, " We have 
attended all the meetings of the State of Ohio, except 
those on the Miamies, which we have apprehended our 
minds released from, the state of the roads having made 
it impracticable to reach them." " We have taken to the 
wagon again, having rode on horseback through the 
meetings, and I have had my health much better than 
when at home." " After attending Plainfield monthly 
meeting * * we have felt our minds released from the 
State of Ohio." " We had meetings at the Courthouses 
in St. Clairsville and Wheeling." " These were indeed 
very weighty engagements, yet I trust they were in the 
ordering of Best Wisdom." 

After visiting Friends at and about " Redstone," or 
Brownsville, the travellers again crossed the Allegheny 
Mountains, into Virginia. After visiting a number of 
meetings in this State, and holding one in the Treasury 
Department, Washington, and others in Maryland, they 
returned home. Their faithful and cheerful companion 
and caretaker on this journey was Samuel Schofield, of 
Abington, Montgomery county. 



RELIGIOUS JOURNEY SOUTH. 59 

In the 4th month, 1809, Sarah Talbot and Rachel 
Price believed it to be their religions duty to visit Friends 
in Virginia, and set out on the journey accompanied by 
Abel Otley as their caretaker. They attended meetings 
through Maryland, reached Fredericksburg, Virginia, — 
"rode down the James river, most of the way a beautiful 
fertile country, which was very pleasing, after travelling 
through that of a contrary description f f " had a favoured 
meeting at Caroline f another at Richmond, and 
attended the yearly meeting, and generally the meetings 
through Eastern Virginia, wherever they could find 
Friends. Their meetings in parts were " few and far be- 
tween," costing great fatigue to reach them; journeys 
which, with bad roads and hot weather, caused " Jack" 
and " Hunter," favourite and well-remembered horses at 
home, to suifer, although friend Abel was very careful 
of them ; with whom they say " we get along in much 
unity, only he is not willing to move quite as fast some- 
times as we would like, but we don't fall out about it." 
Speaking of the horses, it may be permitted the writer, 
who has a grateful and lively recollection of them, to pay 
a tribute of respect to them and their companions then at 
home, and say, that they were the most faithful of ser- 
vants, — doers of all work, — seldom idle, and employed 
alike on the farm, in the team, in social visiting, and the 
more serious duty of going to meeting and carrying 
Friends on their religious journeys ; and who were never 



60 RELIGIOUS JOURNEY SOUTH. 

refused by their owner to a friend or relative, though the 
plough was left thereby to stand in the furrow. 

To proceed on the journey, one result of the bad roads 
was that " the wagon overset, down a hill, in a steep 
place, but through Divine mercy (the narrator says), we 
were preserved from receiving much hurt ) I believe a 
grateful sense of which covered each of our minds." 
" Crossing the middle and north branches of the Shenan- 
doah — then through a fertile country inhabited mostly by 
Germans, with the Blue Ridge on the right hand full in 
view, the river winding along its side, on the left the 
view of the north mountain from a distance, over a con- 
siderable valley of limestone land, the road being in many 
places paved by nature with limestone rocks, often on 
edge, added to the variety of the scene, but not much to 
the ease of the traveller/' 

The religious travail and exercise on this journey were 
both hard and consolatory. At some places their meetings 
were attended by many besides Friends, " some of them 
perhaps from curiosity to hear women preach, who sat 
still, were attentive and serious, and it may be said Truth 
reigned over all." Meetings were also held for the 
blacks, " wherein Best Help was mercifully found to be 
near, I believe to the comforting of many of that afflicted 
people." " I think I never have been more feelingly 
sensible of being in my right place, and that I am about 
my heavenly Father's business, which makes hard things 



RELIGIOUS JOURNEY SOUTH. 61 

easier, and sweetens the bitter cups we have to drink ; 
but if any good be done, let it be ascribed to the Great 
Author of all good, and nothing to the creature, lest by 
self becoming exalted, I be in danger, while calling to 
others, of becoming a castaway myself." " The meetings 
for discipline were favoured seasons, there being great 
openness to receive counsel, the sincere-hearted were 
encouraged, the weak strengthened, the disobedient and 
forgetful warned, and the dear youth invited to forsake 
the vanities and delusive pleasures of this fading world, 
and to close in with the gracious offers of Divine love, 
which were mercifully extended to them. I hope some 
of them yielded to its holy influence so far as to form reso- 
lutions to take up their cross and follow the dear Master 
in the way of self-denial. Oh, may it not pass off as the 
morning dew V Certain meetings of Friends " pain- 
fully exercising my mind, I was almost ready to sink 
under discouragement. The fathers and mothers in too 
many instances being too much buried in the earth, and 
many of the young people, as it were, flying in the air. 
Poor Virginia, what will become of thee ! If it were not 
for the sake of a few righteous souls that are, I trust, in- 
terceding with the Father of mercies in the behalf of the 
people, the judgments that seem to be impending would 
not long be withheld. I have had such impressions as 
these ; but oh, may the intercessions of those be availing, 
so that there may be a turning from darkness unto light, 

6 



62 RELIGIOUS JOURNEY SOUTH. 

and from the power of Satan unto the Lord. Notwith- 
standing I have felt so much tried, I have also been thank- 
ful in believing that there is a remnant in almost every 
place that we have been in, that are sincere-hearted, en- 
deavouring to live up to the principle which we profess. 
To these we have felt nearly united. " At Lynchburg, 
" I received thy very acceptable letter, the contents of 
which were very satisfactory and strengthening. I never 
needed more help and encouragement than at that very 
time. Having had a prospect that it might be right to 
have a meeting with the Friends and friendly people of 
the town, and also with the black people there, the con- 
cern was weighty and exercising to our minds ; and the 
contents of thy letter were so cordial and encouraging 
that it seemed indeed like bearing up of the hands that 
were ready to hang down under the weight of the exer- 
cise. Thus are the rightly yoked made a helpmeet to 
each other, even when far separated. The meeting for 
Friends was, I trust, a memorable time to many. I may 
say without boasting, I have never been more sensible of 
Divine strength being afforded, — mercifully afforded, — 
than in these two meetings." * * " The other meet- 
ing was large ; many of the gayer class of the town's 
folks came in, which increased the exercise, but I believe 
truth was in dominion. May a grateful sense thereof be 
remembered to my own humiliation ; ascribing all unto 



RELIGIOUS JOURNEY SOUTH. 63 

Him that is mindful of his little ones, who are trusting 
in Him." 

" I can't tell thee yet how it may be about Fairfax. I 
have not seen a great way before me, nor often looked 
much back ; it requiring enough of attention to distin- 
guish the right stepping stones to tread on in the imme- 
diate path of duty, which is the most material. I wish 
to go there without any formed impressions ; and if we 
feel easy without visiting the families, it will be a release, 
but hope to be resigned." 

The following is an extract from the letter of her hus- 
band referred to : " Thy letter was very acceptable, al- 
though it had been long written j as I am always pleased 
to hear from one, when absent, I so dearly love, and for 
whose safe getting along and welfare I feel very solicit- 
ous ) and it is truly comfortable to learn you have been 
so far cared for and supported ; and though trying bap- 
tising seasons are often your portion, the Divine arm has 
been underneath, and I trust will continue to preserve to 
the end of your journey. It is pleasing to contemplate 
that your faces are now turned homewards, and that the 
time is not very distant when we may be favoured to 
meet again ; but hope to be preserved in patience and 
resignation until you can have discharged the burden that 
has been laid on you, so as to return with the full reward 
of peace, and can look back with a comfortable assurance 
that you have not omitted doing what was pointed out in 



64 RELIGIOUS JOURNEY SOUTH. 

the clear openings of duty. Notwithstanding I often 
feel my mind low and under much depression, I still feel 
strengthened to bear thy absence, beyond what I had any 
idea »I could before thou left me, which I consider as a 
peculiar favour, for which I cannot be too thankful ; and 
I much desire the dispensations I have had to pass through 
for many months past, may in the end work for my good, 
and better establishment on the everlasting rock which 
can never be removed ; and I hope I am striving to bear 
with resignation and patience what further trials may be 
yet further allotted to prove me." 

From New Market, Md., 7 mo. 26, R. Price writes, 
" With satisfaction I can now inform thee that we have 
entirely left Virginia, having got through what we had 
in prospect there ; visited all the families of Fairfax, at- 
tended the monthly meeting there, at South Fork, G-oose 
Creek, all to good satisfaction, though often under dis- 
couragements, feeling an entire necessity of a full reli- 
ance on that Arm of Power that is alone able to help, 
and without whom we can do nothing to advance the 
great cause of Truth and righteousness." 8 mo. 4th — 
" Came home, found my dear husband and family all well. 
With heart filled with love and gratitude to the Father 
and Fountain of all our mercies, in that He has been 
pleased to afford me a portion of that peace of mind, 
which the world cannot give nor take away, and is beyond 



SIMPLICITY OF DRESS, &c. 65 

the conception of the worldly wise in a state of unre- 
generation." 

The following letter, during this absence, was written 
by Rachel Price, to one of her sons : 

" Winchester, Va., 7 mo. 5, 1809. 
" Dear Son, — I received thy very acceptable letter at 
Lynchburg. It afforded me much satisfaction to find 
thou art willing to continue in the path of self-denial, 
taking up thy cross to the vain customs and fashions of 
the world in that place of temptations and trial (Phila- 
delphia). Oh, may thou be favoured to stand firm now 
in early life, despising the shame, — having an eye to the 
good Pattern of plainness and self-denial, remembering for 
thy encouragement that he has testified, that they that 
acknowledge Him before men, He will also acknowledge 
before His Father and the Holy Angels ; and mayst thou 
also awfully remember that He has also declared that they 
that deny Him before men, them He will also deny before 
His Father and the Holy Angels. I have often felt very 
anxious on thy account since I left home, seeing the very 
great deviations in many places of the children of well 
concerned Friends, from plainness and simplicity, and 
even good moral rectitude ; but, notwithstanding this is 
the case with too many, yet there are some precious 
young people in this land of oppression, which afford a 
comfortable prospect of a succession in some places. And 

I may tell thee, for thy encouragement, that I fully be- 
6* 



66 ADHERENCE TO PRINCIPLE. 

lieve that those that are standing firm to this profession, 
keeping to the principles which we profess, are much 
better respected by the people of the world, than those 
that are baulking the testimony, by giving way in dress 
and address ; and am sure that by keeping to the princi- 
ple is the alone way to obtain peace of mind here, 
and furnishes the only well-grounded hope of peace 
when time shall be no more. I am pleased to find thou 
art satisfied with thy place and business, — hope thou en- 
deavours to improve in every sense of the word, so as to 
be capable of doing well for thyself. In endeared affection, 

Thy mother, 

Rachel Price." 

This letter is given as an instance of the anxious care 
extended to all the children, all of whom conformed not 
only in religious profession, but in respect to dress and 
address, except in the latter particulars the three who 
adopted learned professions. The term shame it is be- 
lieved was used in reference to the feeling experienced by 
those who wish not to be singular and unfashionable in 
fashionable company. It cannot be doubted that those 
only can be respected by any class who act faithfully up 
to their own convictions of duty, whether it be in dress, 
address, or the more important matter of Christian faith 
and practice. In the advanced progress of Christianity 
its profession has ceased to be cause of shame or reproach, 
but rather the absence of a Christian faith and practice, 



COURTEOUS MANNERS. 67 

and the caution often is, with those who are true to an 
honest integrity, not to profess faster than the conviction 
is sincerely felt; thus avoiding all just imputation of 
hypocrisy or of lightly handling sacred things. 

The severest of trials to young Friends, when entering 
upon life, often is, to observe the simplicity of manners, 
dress, and address, of their religious Society; and the 
conclusion is erroneously formed that its requirings in 
these respects are inconsistent with a genteel training and 
a polished behaviour. It is true that the use of unmean- 
ing compliments and fashionable manners would be irre- 
concileable with the views of Friends; but in respect to 
all that really constitutes the character of a true gentle- 
man or lady, the training and principles of the Society 
should furnish the truest elements, in the benevolent im- 
pulses of the heart and the inculcated duty of doing unto 
others as we would have others do unto us, which will 
unquestionably imbue the feelings with a sincere kind- 
ness, and the desire to receive and return a frank courtesy 
and respect. Having this spring to their conduct in 
social intercourse, the Society of Friends has always ex- 
hibited to the world bright examples of men and women, 
of pure morals, polished manners, and cultivated intel- 
lects, who would have felt at home and ranked high in 
the most cultivated and intelligent society in any age or 
country of the world, provided only it should be truthful, 
unpretending, and virtuous. Such in England were 



68 FIRST OHIO YEARLY MEETING. 

Penington, Ellwood, Perm, Barclay, Fothergill, Collin- 
son, Tooke, Allen, Grurney, and Fry ; and in America, 
Logan, Pernberton, Emlen, Savery, Dillwyn, Wain, Grif- 
fitts, Cox, Stabler, Wkitall, Cope, and Parrish. The law 
of Christian benevolence and love should, and ever will, 
induce gentle, kind, and courteous manners, and all be- 
yond is idle ceremony and useless vanity. In shorty 
goodness and intelligence will ever lead all the true graces 
in their train. 

In 1810, Rachel Price visited generally the meetings 
of the Western Quarter; and in 1812, those of Abington 
Quarter ; with good satisfaction. In 1813, Philip Price 
went in company with Jesse Kersey to the Ohio Yearly 
Meeting, being the first held there. It was a horseback 
journey, and meetings were appointed by the way. The 
Yearly Meeting commenced with apprehensions that there 
would be " a want of qualified, discerning Friends, to con- 
duct the business of so important an assembly as a yearly 
meeting." These apprehensions were not realized. " The 
meeting closed on 6th-day," writes P. Price, "and I may 
sum up the whole by saying it was a very satisfactory 
meeting. Jesse Kersey was much favoured. Indeed I 
never have known him more conspicuously so, or appear 
more in his place than in being here at this time." 

Those who heard Jesse Kersey at this period of his 
life, will never forget the power of his eloquence. In the 
deliberative assemblies of the Society he would carefully 



JESSE KERSEY. 69 

observe and sympathize with the exercise of the body, 
and then state the views that had opened upon his own 
mind, with a clearness of demonstration and impressive 
influence that seldom, if ever, failed to guide and make 
the sense of the meeting conclusively apparent and satis- 
factory. In the meetings for worship he would commence 
his subject by a text or proposition, calmly and delibe- 
rately consider it, reason upon it, and support it by 
scriptural citation and example, and proceed by a clear, 
logical deduction and cogent argument ; discourse of the 
precious gift of God to the souls of men ; of that faith 
which is the evidence of things not seen, the substance 
of things hoped for ; that faith which proceeds from a 
living principle, the light and life of the spirit, and mani- 
fests itself in corresponding works ) and as himself and 
hearers became more deeply interested, and the sensibili- 
ties were awakened, the examples of the devoted servants 
of the Most High, in past ages, and of His precious 
visitations to all people, in all times, for their guidance 
and preservation, were dwelt upon, in persuasive and 
touching appeals to the feelings, and in tones pathetic and 
impressive. It was truly " the feast of reason and the 
flow of soul/' in the highest sense, awakening to a re- 
cognition of our obligations of worship and obedience to 
a beneficent and merciful Creator, and of love to Him 
and love to our fellow-creatures. Then followed the 
deeply impressive silence, — eloquently impressive to an 



70 AFFECTING WARNING. 

audience in tears, — owning the overshadowing spirit 
of the Head of the living Church of God ; to be, after a 
precious season of fraternal love and prayerful feeling, 
broken by audible prayer in the same persuasive voice, 
of humble thankfulness and praise to the condescending 
Father of Mercies, for his gracious visitation to the 
nearts of His people ; to be followed by another solemn 
pause and felt quietude, before the separation of the 
assembly. It has been acknowledged by competent 
judges, that within, or without, the Society of Friends, 
in England or America, no more gifted and impressive 
powers of sacred eloquence have been heard than those 
that proceeded from the lips of Jesse Kersey ; yet his 
advantages of literary education had been very limited 
and his employment humble. But as was the plastic clay 
under his moulding touch, so was he himself beneath 
the forming hand of Infinite Goodness and Mercy. 
Thus far had I written, with the design to 

"No farther seek his merits to disclose, 
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, 

(There they alike in trembling hope repose), 
The bosom of his Father and his God." 

But his own narrative has since been published, and in 
the sincerity of the deeply contrite and repentant heart, 
has disclosed the " horror of the great darkness' ' that fell 
upon him, in the use of stimulants, induced by pernicious 
medical treatment. In the depth of mortification and 



AFFECTING WARNING. 71 

humiliation lie was brought to the confession that — 
"among all the remedies for distress, there is none more 
dreadful than that of intemperance !" As an awful 
warning and beacon to others, this most signal downfall 
of the 1 right, the gifted, and eloquent servant of God, is 
probably little less useful, than if his course through life 
had continued in its meridian splendour, unobscured by 
clouds and darkness. But he again found Friends to 
sympathize and aid him in the effort to recover from the 
fearful infirmity'; and the life and services of his latter 
years, if without their earlier strength and brightness, 
shed a mild and benignant light, as he sank to his -final 
rest. It is a beautiful and instructive trait of character, 
that though undergoing the severest of trials, and deepest 
of humiliations, he indulged not in a spirit of resentment, 
but allowed his sufferings to be the chastening means of 
self-reproof and reformation. He passed into the decline 
of life without the persecution, but in the repentant dis- 
position, that made the example of James Naylor, after 
his sad delusion and inhuman persecution, so pathetically 
touching. " I cannot (says Kersey) look back to the 
period when my standing was called in question, without 
feeling the most poignant remorse, that I should have 
been in any degree the cause of reproach to the ever 
blessed principle of Truth, of which I have made pro- 
fession." But he turned to the great Source of true con- 
solation to all who repent, " having witnessed that his 



72 SPIRIT OF FORGIVENESS. 

God was indeed a God of mercy and long-suffering kind- 
ness." 

It is from the depths of extremest suffering, that often 
the soul is brought, through chastisement, to its most 
perfect state of purification and forgiveness. Of this ex- 
perience, the dying declarations of James Naylor, are 
among the most touching and instructive to all, and beau- 
tifully illustrative of the true spirit of Quakerism and of 
Christianity. " There is a spirit which I feel, that de- 
lights to do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong ; but de- 
lights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in 
the end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention, 
and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or whatever 
is of a nature contrary to itself. It sees to the end of all 
temptations ; as it bears no evil in itself, so it conceives 
none in thought to any other. If it be betrayed, it bears 
it ; for its ground and spring is the mercy and forgive- 
ness of God. Its crown is meekness ; its life is everlast- 
ing love unfeigned. It takes its kingdom with entreaty, 
and not with contention, and keeps it by lowliness of 
mind. In God alone it can rejoice, though none else re- 
gard it, or can own its life. It is conceived in sorrow, 
and brought forth without any to pity it ; nor doth it 
murmur at grief and oppression. It never rejoiceth, but 
through sufferings; for with the world's joy it is murdered. 
I found it alone; being forsaken. I have fellowship 
therein with those who lived in dens and desolate places 



SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 73 

in the earth ; who through death obtained this resurrec- 
tion, and eternal, holy life." 

This is that spirit that Friends so well understand, but 
which the world is so much at a loss to comprehend. 
This is that love and G-ospel fellowship that drew them 
together and so richly compensates, even in prisons and 
solitary places, for all sacrifices, sufferings, and privations. 
It was " unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the 
Greeks foolishness," — and even the Christian world yet 
but imperfectly comprehends it. The world casts its re- 
proach because a spiritual profession, that is unfettered by 
the letter, may run into an extreme of license, unjustly 
refusing to judge by the test of the fruits, as Divinely 
enjoined; and it brings into question the good citizenship 
of a people who will not fight to sustain the laws, for 
their firesides, their country, and their religion. The an- 
swer would be enough for them to say, we obey Grod 
rather than man. But is it not also a just and sufficient 
answer for them to give, If all men lived justly and as 
we in peace and amity with all the world, there never 
would be a call to fight for law, firesides, country, or reli- 
gion ? Living in the example of Christ, their testimony 
is to be borne to all the world, and in manner irritant to 
none, and can only be consistently borne by a perfect ab- 
stinence from all contention and strife; and though it 
might be that upon occasions they should fall defenceless 
victims to the wicked and violent, it is but in accordance 
7 



74 SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

with the great example of their Spiritual Leader, in his 
arrest, suffering, and sublimest act of forgiveness on the 
cross, who forbade his servants to fight, and prayed for 
his enemies, " Father forgive them, for they know not 
what they do." No two nations, both just and wise, 
ever went to war. Friends' example and warning are to 
both and to all, and the force of that example and warn- 
ing would be lost if they mingled at all in the fierceness 
of strife and bloodshed. Unresistant by force, they suf- 
fered torture, imprisonment, and death, by thousands, in 
Old England, and were whipped and hung in New Eng- 
land. By their patient, firm, and resolute heroism, 
what did they not accomplish, not for themselves only, 
but for all others ? Inhumanity and cruelty at length 
relented, wearied of their persecutions, and human rights, 
by the fidelity and sufferings of Friends, became secured 
by better laws. When vested with political power in a 
new commonwealth, they acted not on that too common 
principle of our nature, that makes the slave put in 
power the severest taskmaster, or the persecuted in his 
turn the severest persecutor, as if by infliction on others 
to compensate for former sufferings endured. Friends in 
Pennsylvania were, by their toleration and justice, the 
admiration of the wise and good of all the world ; and 
their pacific principle and practice, even as a worldly 
policy, put to shame the wisdom of the other earlier set- 
tlers on this continent. Without arms they landed among 



PRINCIPLE OF PEACE. 75 

and exposed themselves to the tender mercies of those 
called savages. They formed a treaty of peace with them, 
the only one it is said ever formed without an oath, and 
the only one never broken ; and if violated ever in spirit, 
it was not by the Indians so much as by those descendants 
and agents of the family of William Penn, who, in depart- 
ing from his strict sense of justice, as they did also from 
his religious profession, overreached the Indians by " long 
walks/' accelerated to running, to encompass undue quan- 
tities of land, and hence bred a discontent and insecurity 
of far greater loss and disadvantage than the price that 
would have been cheerfully taken for the lands thus un- 
justly gained. And when war came by the acts of 
others, Friends in its midst enjoyed the highest security. 
It is a needless task to destroy those who will not fight — 
those who will not be enemies ', and it is unnatural to in- 
jure those whose avocation it is to go about doing good. 
Few, indeed, are so wantonly cruel, certainly not the 
Savages, as to destroy known benefactors ; those engaged 
in works of love and charity ) in helping the helpless, 
relieving the destitute, healing the wounded, curing the 
sick, visiting the imprisoned ; such as the Howards, the 
Frys, the Dixes, or those most devoted of women, the 
" Sisters of Charity/' who frequent the wards of pesti- 
lence and death, to minister to the sick and dying. Pre- 
judice, passion, and wickedness, may be inflamed and for 
a time triumph, and inflict penalties and punishment 



76 PRINCIPLE OF PEACE. 

upon the disinterested benefactors of the helpless victims of 
oppression, or of the insane inmates of their asylums, and 
burn the convents of harmless women who have devoted 
their lives to religion ; but the reacting sentiment of 
humanity and justice will soon again restore the unjustly 
injured to their true position of respect, favour, and 
gratitude. 

But if the peace principle held by Friends, be imprac- 
ticable as a worldly policy, it is only so because of the 
injustice and wickedness of the world. And is that a 
sufficient motive for them to abandon their heavenly 
descended principle, and to succumb to and participate in 
that injustice and wickedness ? Is it not rather their 
duty ever and unflinchingly to maintain their sacred 
testimony against evils of man's self-infliction so cruel, 
brutal, and devastating, as those of war ? Let them not 
be discouraged ; the world has advanced, and been ad- 
vanced by them, in toleration, justice, mercy, and for- 
giveness. The axe, the halter, and the sword, are of less 
frequent application ; and peace, security, and happiness, 
are progressive on the earth. 

Be it that Friends must endure the charge of transcen- 
dentalism; it is but an assertion that their standard is 
excellent above that which unregenerate men have yet 
attained. It is but a confession that these have found 
Christianity impracticable to themselves. Is then the 
exalted standard of Christianity to be reduced to meet 



PRINCIPLE OF PEACE. 77 

man's short-comings, and conform to his imperfect stand- 
ard ? Rather let men look upward to the standard of 
highest perfection, and in aiming to reach it, attain a 
higher excellence. Striking is the contrast between the 
Christian standard-bearer and his accusers. These re- 
proach him for striving for an exalted purity, and becom- 
ing, perhaps, a martyr to principle ) but he regards them 
with kindness, pity, charity, and forgiveness ) because 
they know not what is their loss. They would drag him 
down to their worldly condition and spirit of contention; 
he, in abounding love and sympathy, would raise them to 
the enjoyment of his own pure and exalted serenity, love, 
and happiness, and prays that they may be forgiven, " for 
they know not what they do." 

Yet there exists a soldiery, and it may be a patriotic 
soldiery, and as the world now is, the necessary protectors 
of order and security, but they are a necessity arising 
only from the wickedness or folly of mankind, and to be 
used, in worldly policy, in the smallest practicable quan- 
tity, as themselves dangerous to security and liberty. 
But looking to the ultimate good, and to the influence of 
the advocates of peace on that public opinion that deter- 
mines the momentous question of peace or war, these are 
to be cherished as affording that example, and the main- 
tainers of that principle, which alone can mirror and 
establish the future pervading happiness of the world, 

that is the hope of all good men. Thus, if in the mino- 

7* 



78 HOME PROTECTION. 

rity, they accomplish a great good ; and could they obtain 
a unanimity of sentiment and practice, then would the 
world witness an unprecedented peace and prosperity, — 
even the bliss fabled by poets, and the happiness hoped 
for in the millennium. But if the ultimate perfection and 
happiness be unattainable, yet is every approach a gain to 
the world ; while to those who are of the kingdom whose 
" servants fight not," it is a realized beatitude, except 
only as the good must ever sympathize with and strive 
for the recovery of the unregenerate and uninstructed 
in their own true felicity. 

During the second war with England, from 1812 to 
1815, when foreign supplies were cut off, our own manu- 
facturers having a monopoly of the home market, Merino 
sheep came into great request, and attained highly specu- 
lative prices. Large flocks then and afterwards ranged 
the farms of Philip Price, and were good fertilizers of the 
soil. But with the influx brought by the return of peace, of 
foreign goods, and the impolitic abandonment by the gov- 
ernment of an adequate protection to the capital invested 
in manufactories, wool and sheep found a sudden depression, 
and the loss on these aggravated the difficulties of the farm- 
ing interests, otherwise severely suffering under the fall of 
prices incident to a return after the war from an inflated 
paper currency to a specie basis. The large flocks that 
whitened the hills of Chester county soon disappeared, 
only to reappear, many years afterwards, on the cheaper 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 79 

lands of the rolling surface of Washington and adjoining 
counties in western Pennsylvania. An incident occurred 
in relation to the produce of the sheep of P. Price, that 
afforded some amusement at the time. Until then 
blue had been the standing military colour, and he had 
his wool manufactured into gray cloth and sent to the 
store at West Chester, thinking it quite secure from 
military service ; but it so happened that the first volun- 
teer company there formed fancied that colour, called 
themselves the " Chester County Grays," and the writer, 
then a lad in the store, thought himself in good luck to 
sell the whole stock of Quaker cloth to the members to 
go to camp. The companies at Marcus Hook were not, 
however, called to meet the enemy, and the clothing had 
only served to keep the soldiers warm, a circumstance 
hardly to be regretted, since among them were personal 
friends, and an uncle of the writer, Joseph H. Brinton, 
who, though of great wealth, advanced age, and mild 
manners, believed it to be his duty to turn out as a vol- 
unteer private in the defence of his country. He was 
not bred a Friend, and was undoubtedly actuated by a 
high sense of patriotic feeling. 

The Agricultural Society of Chester county was or- 
ganized early in the year 1820, by the election of Philip 
Price, as President, Doctor William Darlington, as Vice- 
President, and Isaac Sharpless, as Secretary ; and about 
fifty of its most substantial and worthy farmers were 



80 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

appointed on its ten committees. It was the first society 
in the State composed chiefly of practical farmers. The 
objects embraced by its standing committees, evince the 
intelligence and liberal scope of the minds of the mem- 
bers. The committees were : 1. On farm buildings, 
fences, and implements of husbandry ; 2. On the veteri- 
nary art; 3. On natural history, particularly mine- 
ralogy and entomology ; 4. Political economy ; 5. 
Domestic animals; 6. Grasses, grains, and roots; 7. 
Manures; 8. Fruit and forest trees; 9. Irrigation and 
draining; 10. Horticulture; with specifications of the 
objects and purposes of each committee. An address to 
the citizens of the county was prepared by Nathan H. 
Sharpless, recommending its objects, and inviting investi- 
gation and contribution of the results of experiment and 
experience ; which states that " it is within the memory 
of many of us that this county was very poor, but thanks 
to the worthy founders of our present farming system, 
our own industry and a beneficent Providence, it has 
arisen to a degree of prosperity and excellence seldom 
witnessed in so short a period of time. Most of you 
•know how this has been accomplished. It has been 
effected by a judicious rotation of crops, by clover and 
gypsum." To encourage the diffident and unpractised 
with the pen, the address proceeds, — u It would not be 
expected that all communications, to be beneficial, should 
be grammatically correct, or in smoothly rounded periods ; 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 81 

practical observations and facts, tending in any degree to 
illustrate the subject, will find as ready acceptance dressed 
in the plainest language of simplicity, as the more polished 
sentences of the philosopher or scholar." A further ad- 
dress, from the pen of another member, William H. 
Dillingham, will also be found in the columns of the 
" Village Record," of the same year, enforcing concert 
of action for the common interest, the diffusion of useful 
intelligence, and to raise the profession of agriculture in 
the public estimation. Much of this address would have 
been forcibly pertinent in favour of the formation of a 
State Agricultural Society, as lately consummated, at a 
central point for exhibition, the receipt and diffusion of 
information, seeds, &c. And reference is made to another 
great branch of human industry to enforce the argument 
and afford encouragement to a like vigilance and concen- 
tration of power. " In no part of the world are the mer- 
chants without their Chamber of Commerce, and to this 
means, in a great measure, is to be ascribed, not only 
their high respectability as a body, but their great unani- 
mity in public measures, and their weight in almost every 
government. The moment their interests are touched in. 
any one point, the whole body sympathizes, and all their 
influence is exerted through the common organ." Ches- 
ter county has now her Horticultural Hall, and though a 
later architectural ornament to West Chester than the 
Chester County Cabinet, the liberal scope of the purposes 



82 SERVICE IN THE MINISTRY. 

of the Agricultural Society probably suggested the form- 
ation of the Cabinet, Horticultural Society, &c. Certain, 
however, it is, that such naturalists as Dr. Darlington, 
David Townsend, Joshua Hoopes, and many others, were 
active in all, and by their industry and zeal, have added 
to the scientific character of the county, and one of them 
by his publications has acquired a reputation among 
European savans. In giving his own learning, and the 
remains of other naturalists — of a Baldwin, Marshall, 
Collinson, and Bartram — to the public, he has acted in 
the benevolent spirit, and not in that of those whom 
Buckminster reproaches as the misers of learning, who 
hoard for themselves alone : " That learning, whatever it 
may be, which lives and dies with the possessor, is more 
worthless than his wealth, which descends to posterity." 
If all capable of teaching would thus earnestly devote 
themselves in some way and to some extent, to instruct 
mankind, the progress of improvement would be vastly 
accelerated. 

During the years of their superintendence of West- 
Town, and afterwards of their school at West Chester, the 
duties there devolved upon them, relieved Philip and 
Rachel Price from the service of distant travel. Their 
sphere of influence was, however, hardly more circum- 
scribed. Children came to them from far and near, to 
experience from them the care and concern of earthly 
parents, and to sit under the teaching of a spiritual mo- 



SERVICE IN THE MINISTRY. 83 

tlier. The communion of feeling was promotive of the 
mutual happiness; for they loved the innocence and 
purity of youth, untainted by a knowledge of the evils 
of the world, and drew them unto them in the spirit of 
the Holy one, who said " suffer little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom 
of Heaven." Meetings of worship were regularly held 
in the house at West-Town ; and besides an attendance at 
the places of worship, frequent family sittings, and read- 
ings of the Scriptures of Truth, took place in the school, 
at West Chester. On such occasions, and to her latest 
age of over eighty years, Rachel Price spoke under emo- 
tions of deep humility and exercise of religious feeling, 
as in the discharge of a duty she could not disobey and 
obtain the peace of mind her soul coveted. Her power 
of voice was not great, but gentle and pathetic in its 
tones, and sweetly in unison with the affectionate appeals 
made to her hearers. She ever dwelt upon the Divine 
precepts of our Saviour, — His love, His sufferings, and 
sacrifice, with an intense sympathy and love, inducing a 
like feeling of love and appreciation of His merits in 
others. She ever held in view His promise to return as 
the Comforter and spiritual visiter to the souls of men ; 
admonishing the young to heed His gentle knockings at 
the door of the heart, and the whisperings of the still small 
voice of love, offering its divine counsels for safe guidance 
through a world beset with temptations. Though it 



84 SERVICE IN THE MINISTRY. 

should demand continual watchfulness, and the road be 
straight and narrow, yet it was with the promise that all 
His ways were ways of peace, and all His paths 
paths of pleasantness. With more than the yearning of 
a mother's affection, she would gather them beneath the 
enfolding wings of Gospel love. It is believed that she 
was seldom visited with the sorrowful regret of Him who 
wept over the people of Jerusalem, whom He would thus 
have gathered, " but they would not ;" but it is remem- 
bered with contrition by one of her sons, who had 
absented himself from her on an occasion of religious 
worship, that the solemn language came sorrowfully to 
her mind in reference to him, — " Couldst not thou watch 
one hour" with me ? The keenest of reproaches, com- 
municated in love, was followed, as in the Divine example, 
by a benign forgiveness. With the stricken and discon- 
solate she was deeply sympathetic, and most affectionate 
in her appeals that they should turn to the true and ever- 
lasting source of comfort ; and often did she repeat to 
such the invitation of the Divine Master, with the sanc- 
tion of her own heartfelt experience, — u Come unto me, 
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; 
for I am meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find rest 
unto your souls - } for my yoke is easy, and my burden is 
light," 

At no period of life, and under no circumstances, did 



CHOICE OF PROFESSION. 85 

the children of these affectionate parents cease to be the 
objects of their Christian care and deep parental solicitude. 
Those who adopted professions, did so not under a prohi- 
bition, yet without their " cordial approbation." In the 
legal profession, it was apprehended, there could be little 
quiet peace of mind to be enjoyed, in the midst of strife 
and contention ; that temptation would arise to make 
causes appear difficult to enhance the fees ; and that 
while " sensible there is no profession by which a man 
may raise himself in the public estimation more conspicu- 
ously, it might lead away from that true Christian dignity 
which is so much superior to all this world can confer. 
Though the happiness and comfort of my beloved child- 
ren has always been an object of my most ardent desire, 
and I have endeavoured to promote it as far as was in my 
power, and have wished to leave them very much to 
choose for themselves such occupations as would accord 
with their own views, yet I have always desired they 
might be content with the humble walks of life, in which 
there is much less temptation to depart from those prin- 
ciples which we must practise, if ever we expect to 
secure that peace and felicity which can only be attained 
thereby." * * " Notwithstanding we have been much 
comforted in a belief that thou hast intended to regulate 
thy conduct by the strictest integrity and morality, fears 
will be excited from thy continual exposure" to adverse 
influences. This is an instance of repeated expressions 



86 EDUCATION OF THE HEART. 

of parental regard and wisdom of one of the best of 
fathers, pointing to the true sources of human happiness 
and dignity. One rule given by him at the outset of 
professional practice, cannot be too often inculcated on 
young beginners, — " always to have the client's money 
ready when he calls. " 

While the subjects of this memoir were always friendly 
to the cause of education, and devoted much of their 
lives to its promotion, it was in regard to the education 
of the heart that they were ever most solicitous. They 
well understood the risk there constantly is that the 
learning of the head may be at the expense of that teach- 
ing of the heart which it was the great and unceasing 
purpose of their lives to foster. In regard to those sons 
who had chosen the learned professions, their anxiety in 
this respect was intense, and their warnings frequent and 
solemn. They perceived the danger incurred of a yield- 
ing to the suggestions of an absorbing ambition, and that 
even the laudable desire of being sufficiently learned to 
be skilful and reliable, might exact so much time and so 
fully occupy the mind, as to become too exclusive an en- 
gagement, and leave the more precious seed and germs 
of the heart to wither, exhausted of their needful support. 
Ambition they knew to be a barren soil for the growth 
of the gentle affections, and the reasoning faculty they 
believed often to be impoverishing to the growth of reli- 
gious life. Besides the exacting demands of professional 



EDUCATION OF THE HEART. 87 

learning and business, the scholar who too exclusively 
cultivates and relies upon the deductions of his under- 
standing is ever in peril of placing an undue dependence 
upon his own intellectual strength and moral fortitude. 
The observation of physical facts and close logical deduc- 
tions become engagements too exclusive to permit a cor- 
responding culture of the moral and religious suscepti- 
bilities with which we are wonderfully endowed. The 
self-confident philosopher assumes the problem of life to 
be, and he the wisest man, who can derive the greatest 
amount of pleasurable sensations with the fewest of pain : 
the laws of health are to be observed to avert pain and 
suffering; but consistently therewith pleasure may be 
tasted to the measure of the human capacity for enjoy- 
ment. This theory, adopted in the ardour and confidence 
of youth in its practical carrying out, is commonly found 
to be depreciative of worth and character; indulgence 
begets increase of appetite ; the Stoic gives way to the 
Epicurean philosophy; and the pride of intellectual 
strength must succumb in sympathetic decay with the 
undermined physical powers. The sentinel Reason, in 
dalliance with pleasure, is betrayed and lost to the enemy, 
and is powerless to retrieve the fatal error, or reascend 
the way so easy of declension. 

Against the ever operative seductions of the sensual 
appetites, producing a moral paralysis and spiritual in- 
anity, as well as destructive to health, Christianity 



88 THE DIVINE LIGHT. 

teaches, and Friends have ever emphatically preached, a 
sure means of preservation and safety to every human 
soul. It instructs to the observance of a higher principle 
of action, cultivates to a higher sensibility to virtue, a 
quicker perception of evil, and to an appreciation of 
higher joys, in the presence of which degrading vices 
cease to tempt, and, become repulsive, now confirm virtuous 
resolves. Friends find in the promises of the Gospel, and 
in the experiences of their own spiritual travail, a quicker 
monitor than the process of reason ; for reason short- 
sightedly estimates the tempting pleasure at a value that 
will ever bias the decision, while in the sacrifice of it the 
far-seeing Christian soldier finds in his triumph a more 
than compensating foretaste of a superior happiness. 
Friends have been the especial instructors in the doctrine 
of the inward guide and Divine light "given to every 
man to profit withal," and ever nigh, " even in the heart." 
They experimentally know that " The heart of the wise 
teaches his mouth and addeth learning to his lips." It 
is the doctrine of the Scriptures, every part of which 
gleams with the truth that God speaks to and operates 
upon the hearts of his people. It comports with His benefi- 
cence and justice towards the creatures of his own crea- 
tion that He should cast a light on their path, through 
the perilous pilgrimage of life ; and it is not for philoso- 
phy to assert that the Master of all causes cannot shape 
them to His ends, influence the affections, change the 



THE LIGHT WITHIN. 89 

heart, and suggest the thoughts of men, for their indi- 
vidual or national guidance. The Psalmist exclaims, 
" Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I 
flee from Thy presence ?" " I will praise Thee, for I am 
fearfully and wonderfully made." " How precious also 
are Thy Thoughts unto me, oh, God ! How great is the 
sum of them ! If I should count them, they are more in 
number than the sand : "When I awake, I am still with 
Thee." And how emphatic and awfully impressive, and 
repressive of sinful indulgences, the declarations of the 
New Testament, " Know ye not that ye are the temple 
of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you f" 
and " if any man defile the temple of God, him shall 
God destroy :" " The kingdom of heaven is within f and 
"the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, faith." 

Those who are quiescent from agitating worldly influ- 
ences, desirous to be enlightened, and guided by the 
highest wisdom, sincerely true to their own happiness and 
prayerfully earnest that they might not be betrayed into 
temptation, cannot have failed to perceive feelings to 
arise and thoughts to be suggested of unwonted clearness, 
as obeyed to conduce to safety of conduct and solace of 
mind; and again in the retrospects of the future, the 
Divine guidance through the besetting perils of the past, 
but become more conspicuously apparent, in the visible 
shipwrecks of others, with which the shores of Hfe are 

strewn. Man may do much to put himself in the position 
8* 



90 THE LIGHT WITHIN. 

to be the recipient, but cannot of his own will command, 
the Divine favour : He may withdraw himself from the 
current of worldly cares and strifes, enter into his closet, 
or gather among those of whom Christ has promised to 
be in the midst, and patiently waiting, " in the silence of 
all flesh/' he will find precious visitations to his soul, 
coming unbidden and without human effort, and often 
without discernible association according to any asserted 
law regulating the successions of human thought. Holy 
influences are breathed upon the soul more sweetly than 
the tones of music, potent to dispel its anxieties, kindling 
into faith, hope, and joy. Though the understanding be 
not able to trace the cause or comprehend the means of 
operation, the effect and the fact are obviously apparent. 
The presence of a power of spiritual discernment is felt, 
and its discernments are perceived with suflicient distinct- 
ness to become the practical and sure guidance of life. 
" The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest 
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or 
whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the 
spirit/' Judging from the beneficent effects, it is enough 
to believe its source is good and its end peace and happi- 
ness. This Divine influence, figuratively called " the 
light within," so earnestly believed and preached by 
ancient Friends as to become their most distinguishing 
characteristic, is that doctrine most prominently taught 
in all the Scriptures of Truth, and owning the inward 



DUTY OF OBEDIENCE. 91 

and operative presence of the Spirit of God is most potent 
to purge of sin and give elevation and purity to the 
human affections. Who, dwelling in this faith, can dare 
to pollute the chosen temple of the Immaculate, to dim 
its heavenly lustre, and crucify again the Holy Spirit in 
this inward appearance ! 

This doctrine, preached and practised by all true 
Friends, and most consistently preached and practised 
through life by the subjects of this Memoir, is, however, 
ever accompanied by the warning that the voice that 
speaks within may be unheeded until it shall not speak 
again ; that the eye may be so wilfully closed upon the 
light as to become sealed in blindness. This voice may 
speak in whispers, but in stillness is to be listened to and 
obeyed ) and though the light appear as the earliest dawn, 
yet is it to be watched to its perfect day. The faith be- 
gotten is in the beginning compared to the smallest of 
seed, which may grow to great size ; but its germ, how- 
ever small, is not to be choked, nor the flower of promise 
crushed, or there will be no fruit. The good seed is 
broadly cast upon every soil, as the rain is sent alike upon 
the just and the unjust, that none may have excuse ; but 
with some it falls as upon stony places, with others as 
among thorns, and with some as upon good ground. The 
duty and responsibility is with the recipient to give it 
nourishment and growth until it shall yield good fruit : 
It may be quickened by the tears of repentant sorrow, or 



92 SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. 

by those that spring from the grateful heart of love and 
devotion, alike owning its source, the " living water 
springing up into everlasting life." 

This growth, though " it cometh without observation/' 
is as certain and visible in its effects upon human feelings, 
thought, conduct, and character, as the phenomena of 
physical nature, and thus carries with it the same force 
of demonstration. Philosophy itself enumerates " the 
principle of faith" and " the sense of the Deity" as in- 
herent in the human mind j* whilst it also avers the 
sources of all human ideas to proceed from sensation, and 
the reflective operations of the mind.*)" But these are 
perceived and known only by consciousness ; nay, it is only 
by consciousness that we know that we live and recognise 
our own identity ; and it is equally by consciousness that 
the spiritual operations are felt and known, than which, 
and the religious convictions thereby sealed upon the mind, 
nothing can be more direct and powerful. There is no 
evidence of higher certainty that can reach the human 
understanding ; all must reach the mental consciousness ; 
it is experience all, perceived, felt, known experience. 

With, therefore, all the certainty of demonstration that 
pertains to objects of physical perception, is it not 
rational to believe that the Creator should ever be as 
operative upon human feeling, thought, and conduct, as 
that His power should be incessantly active upon all the 

* Rush on the Mind, 10. f Locke, Stewart. 



DIVINE INTERPOSITION. 93 

inferior creation ? All things proclaim their origin in a 
Supreme Intelligence, whose watchfulness and protection 
are never for a moment intermitted ; and man, the highest 
in perfection, and of greatest permitted range and liberty 
of choice, most of all needs guidance and protective care, 
and must mainly receive and share it through the feel- 
ings and mental operations. No one will rationally say 
that a being so wonderfully framed and mentally endowed 
as man is the production of blind, physical causes, — in 
structure, feeling, immaterial thought and heavenly aspi- 
rations, — of causes absolute, irreversible, unvaryingly 
and eternally operative — without subsequent interposition 
to imbue a feeling or suggest a thought for mortal 
guidance. This would contradict the beneficence and 
wisdom displayed in all creation. Man's wants are 
infinitely diversified, and as infinite the resources must be 
for his well being. Is it a greater marvel to the compre- 
hension that Grod should regard and protect in the enjoy- 
ment of life and happiness, the being whom he created, 
than that he should have especially interposed to create 
him ? Whom he did create and does perpetuate by 
mysteriously preserving the equality of the sexes, and 
by providing the resources of food and raiment, is it ex- 
traordinary that he should mentally and spiritually 
guide ? All things tell us that Grod hath done all things 
well, and nothing in vain. He has endowed the moral 
nature, and gives the spiritual discernment and impulse to 



94 DIVINE INTERCESSION. 

prayer. Shall lie then clothe the lily in its beauty, and 
give to all vital nature the impulse and direction appro- 
priate to its prescribed development, and yet shall He not 
inspire the grateful heart in its worship and praise to 
Him ? Yes, truly, " the preparation of the heart in 
man and the answer of the tongue are from the Lord." 
He is that " friend that sticketh closer than a brother." 
To whom then He bids to knock, will he not open the 
door ? to whom to implore will He not give ? Of Him 
that knoweth what things we have need of before we ask, 
shall we not " find grace to help in time of need V It 
is true He must be the Judge of what we need, and we 
shall not receive what we unwisely ask ; but asking in 
submission to His will, shall ever receive contentment 
and peace, and attain that condition wherein best we 
deserve and are most certain to receive suggestion and 
aid for our relief and well-being. Then it is we most 
certainly come into a conformity with the Divine will, and 
into the condition best to subserve human happiness. 
Then it is that the disturbing interests and passions be- 
come allayed, the understanding cleared, and the voice of 
wisdom is heard, inevitably suggestive of improvement, 
safety, and happiness; and then it is that assailing 
temptations vanish, as evil spirits into their dark abodes, 
the soul becomes purified, and the apprehensive anxiety 
ever mingling in our mysterious existence is appeased, 
and we come to know a reconciliation with our Heavenly 



CORRECTIVE EXPERIENCE. 95 

Father. Then in another and happier sense we find 
verified the pristine declaration of Jehovah, " My spirit 
shall not always strive with man ;" bnt strive it ever 
assuredly will, so long as aught exists at variance with it, 
until there be a submission and conformity, or the lost 
soul becomes hardened and deaf to the voice of Divine 
instruction. For those who have " tasted the good word 
of Grod and of the powers of the world to come," may 
"fall away/ 7 not " to renew them again unto repentance. 7 ' 
Have the preceding views been unduly extended, or 
indeed wholly misplaced ? They have appeared to the 
writer to be applicable for the correction of a too preva- 
lent tendency of the learned mind, and to be a just ac- 
knowledgment to the wisdom of the parental solicitude, 
after the experience and reflection furnished by maturity 
of years, by one who was the object of their deep con- 
cern and anxiety. The truthful beauty and efficacy of 
their faith, by time and experience, have become more 
convincingly apparent. This corrective experience has 
in a degree involved the task of unlearning what had been 
learned, and of retracing the divergent steps to come to the 
more simple path from whence the departure was taken. 
It is a retrograde course that philosophy and learning are 
ever compelled to take, to test elaborate and overwrought 
theory by that which is unsophisticated, unbiassed, and 
simply truthful. When the pride of learning has over- 
looked and travelled beyond the simple evidences of truth 



96 CORRECTIVE EXPERIENCE. 

within the mind, and a literal theology has darkened 
knowledge and disregarded the very fountain of true 
religious faith and experience — a recurrence to a simpler 
test becomes necessary ; and this service the Society of 
Friends rendered to the world in its rise and subsequent 
existence. It called upon mankind to turn their minds 
inward to observe the manifestations of truth and wisdom, 
there to be perceived, felt, and understood, with the cer- 
tainty of sensation, and the clearness of a self-evident 
proposition, showing, by a light always at hand, a way so 
clearly that even the simple may find and not err therein. 
The sincere and honest mind could never find it difficult 
to distinguish the presence and pervasive influence of 
feelings and thoughts infused in every crisis restraining 
from evil, from those of an opposing nature, betraying 
into the besetting temptation. The difficulty ever was to 
draw the attention of men from the attractions and dis- 
turbance of outward and worldly influences, from agitat- 
ing passions and deceptive reasonings, to an observance 
of this simple but purest and sublimest source of teach- 
ing, which, if faithfully begun and persevered in, with a 
just fidelity to its manifestations, and a proper regard to 
their own happiness, would be found to experience a larger 
growth, obtain a predominance and victory over gross and 
earthly propensities, and productive of feelings and 
thoughts so elevated and enlightened as to be in them- 
selves a source of inexpressible satisfaction, and thus 



SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 97 

minister to the soul the evidences of a Divine approval 
and authority. 

A rigid and sceptical philosophy will call this expe- 
rience but an enthusiastic feeling : it is, nevertheless, a 
reality, in itself happiness, instructive in the highest in- 
telligence, and has all, and more than all, of the evidence 
that is the basis of philosophical demonstration. It is 
evidenced by consciousness, by the deductions of the 
rational power of the understanding, by its good fruits, 
and more than earthly felicity. Those who have this 
happy experience "have tasted of the heavenly gift," 
and learned that of a certainty "the true worshippers 
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." This 
heavenly teaching and spiritual worship is a source of 
instruction alike open to the illiterate and the learned ; 
for to all, in the infinite beneficence of the Almighty 
Father, a portion of His blessed spirit is imparted, in 
measure sufficient, if obeyed, to lead into righteousness, 
to interpret the Holy Scriptures, lend to their perusal a 
holy joy, and unerringly guide into His everlasting rest. 
This belief, and this alone, can keep the mind directed 
heavenward, and its rejection, to set it towards a mate- 
rial philosophy, that is " of the earth, earthy/' that 
must bring it to a spiritual death, and the sacrifice of the 
most exalted affections and aspirations of the human 
soul. All that there is of pleasure in appetites and pro- 
pensities repressed and supplanted by this Heavenly 
9 



98 DIVINE INSPIRATION. 

influence, is more than compensated here on earth by the 
pure and holy joy it dispenses at all times and in all 
places, whether in the busy throngs of the world's pro- 
gressions, or in the silence of solitude and night, whilst 
the blessed promises for the future life are inimitably 
consoling and beatific. The innocent and the good alone 
are happy, but most truly so when man fully enjoys his 
pre-eminent privilege to love and adore his Creator. This 
most exalted service of the human mind, neither rejects 
nor disparages any intellectual faculty, but, in deep 
humility, every holy feeling and every power of the 
understanding is submissively engaged in the adoration 
of the Infinite in power and wisdom. 

That the vicious should disbelieve in the intercession 
of the spirit of God, and in His divine inspiration, is 
natural, for they will stifle that which whets the conscience 
to turn its sharpened edge upon all their iniquity. That 
philosophers should doubt, proceeds from another and too 
exclusive occupation and reliance of the mind, withdraw- 
ing its attention from a watchful perception of and sub- 
mission to God's best gift to man, in its cherished growth 
constituting man's highest excellence and perfection of 
character. But that professing Christians and Christian 
teachers should call in question this great saving Truth, 
without which all religion loses its vitality, is matter of 
marvel, and only to be comprehended in the admission 
of the fact that such outward and literal views are taken 



DIVINE INSPIRATION. 99 

by them as to turn the perception and intellect from the 
true source of Divine enlightenment and religious convic- 
tion. The Scriptures assure us of the visitations of the 
spirit of the Almighty to the souls of men in ancient 
days ', that it strove with man ; that " in the beginning 
was the Word — and the Word was Grod :" He raised up 
prophets in all ages, and they addressed themselves to that 
which was spiritual in man. He declared to Israel, " I 
will pour my spirit on thy seed." Has the human race, 
then, become less the object of Divine regard ? Did 
Christianity introduce a less spiritual dispensation ? or 
did it more especially and emphatically call man to a 
recognition of the spiritual coming of Christ again ? It 
declares, " A man can receive nothing unless it be given 
him of Heaven." u Unto every one of us is given grace, 
according to the measure of the gift of Christ." And 
Jesus said, " I will pray the Father, and he shall give you 
another comforter, that he may abide with you for ever f* 
"the spirit of Truth will guide you into all Truth;" 
and thus the New Testament abounds in blessed promises. 
The kingdom of Grod is declared to be within ; and that 
without a new birth, man cannot see the kingdom of God. 
He must be born of the spirit, " and that which is born 
of the spirit is spirit." This regeneration then comes of 
G-od, and is the manifestation of His Holy spirit upon 
the soul of man. But wherefore, unless He can change 
the disposition of the heart, inspire holier feelings and 



100 IRRELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY. 

infuse better thoughts, and thus speak to and inspire 
man's highest intelligence and guide his course on earth ? 
If there be a spark of religion in the human, breast, it is 
there Divinely lighted, and for a holy purpose. It must 
enlighten and direct. It must do so as needed ; and will, 
as the star of night, guide the voyager in life in the hour 
of trouble, darkness, and peril, if he will but turn to it 
with faith and hope. " This God is our God, for ever 
and ever ; he will be our guide even unto death." 

This subject has not been dwelt upon without ample 
knowledge of the occasion for it. It was the deep con- 
cern of devoted parents, and it is fitting that it should be 
transmitted, as perhaps the most valuable legacy of the 
writer to his own children. The world has recently been 
shocked by the annunciation that even cultivated woman, 
forgetful of what seems almost the instincts of her better 
nature, disclaims that Gospel that alone has given her 
station and elevation ; nay, atheistically rejects a God/ 
and resolves all nature into u a system of ever working 
forces, producing forms, uniform in certain lines and 
largely various in the whole, and all under the operation 
of immutable law." In her philosophy, all revelation — 
all spiritual influence, is a delusion ; all prayer is power- 
less, weakness, and folly. But who established this im- 
mutable law, and empowered it to fashion all things in 
admirable beauty of design and perfection, is not explain- 
ed. Did an immutable law produce those "forms," and 



IRRELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY. 101 

breathe into them life ? Did inert matter, by a sponta- 
neous working force, take upon itself motion, and life, 
and thought ? or did one living species produce another ? 
All observation has shown that one species cannot gene- 
rate another, and that each, in infinite number, was the 
object of the special interpositions of the Creative Power. 
Indeed, all life, in all its processes, can only be referred 
to the continuing action of creative power — no philoso- 
phy sounds its mysterious depth. That Book of the Al- 
mighty, to whose printed pages, at least, this unsexed 
philosopher will give her credence — the long-treasured 
archives of geology — would appear to show many succes- 
sive interpositions to place differing species of animals on 
earth. 

But such a philosophy finds its condemnation in the 
inherent repulsion of the human mind itself. The mind 
is formed to infer and believe that all things made in 
transcendent beauty and perfection, have had a beneficent 
and intelligent Author ; and those who falter in this be- 
lief, are illogical exceptions to the Divine purpose. It is 
formed to admire the manifestations of the Divine wisdom 
and power, and to love, worship, and adore a Supreme 
Intelligence ; and when it fails in this, its error is demon- 
strated in a failure to attain its own highest excellence 
and truest happiness. Thus the test of experience falsi- 
fies the philosophy. If, indeed, all results proceed from 
material causes, under self-existent laws of uniform ope- 



102 SCHOLASTIC LEARNING DISTRUSTED. 

ration, then must we but worship matter, and yet blindly 
bow down in heathen idolatry. Then must there be no 
spiritual future, no continuous identity of being, no 
righteousness nor sin, no virtue nor crime. Then is 
man's freedom coercion, his choice a necessity ; and all 
matter, all life, all mind, have been predestined by laws 
of blind physical compulsion. This necessary reduction 
flagrantly exposes the falsity of the premises. It is the 
extreme of incongruity to assume that mind can originate 
from matter. Intelligence alone can produce intelligence; 
and the human soul ever owns the divinity of its source 
in its lofty desires and devotional aspirations. 

The error of such a theory is, however, the less dan- 
gerous, since the mind by an instinctive dread shrinks 
from its adoption. But there is a more insidious danger 
that has always produced a watchful distrust in Friends. 
It is the philosophy of the schools as taught from stand- 
ard works of approved character; and a system of in- 
struction that developes the intellect more than it culti- 
vates the affections of the heart. Turn, for instance, to 
the work of Locke on the Understanding, ascribing all 
ideas to the sources of sensation and reflection, with so 
rigid a severity, as to leave but the conclusion that the 
spirit of piety and a divine inspiration into the minds of 
men is but a delusive enthusiasm or hallucination of 
the enkindled imagination. Though himself a Christian 
professor, and making no ostensible attack upon religion, 



SCHOLASTIC LEARNING DISTRUSTED. 103 

the tendency of his principal work is to encourage the 
philosophy of materialism, and is accordingly so cited 
and relied upon. To look to its practical effects, no one 
can doubt that, if fully adopted, it must quench those 
feelings and chill that fervour from which great actions 
and exalted character usually spring. If G-eorge Fox 
could in his youth have read the then unwritten work of 
his great contemporary, when first visited by those strong 
impressions — "that day-spring from on high" — that 
decided the course and character of his momentous life, 
and had adopted its conclusions, his religious ardour and 
indomitable resolution would have been for ever repressed, 
and his glorious mission been lost to mankind. The 
characters of these two great men cannot be compared by 
the strong contrasts of the lights and shades that dis- 
criminate the good and the bad ; but by their apprecia- 
tion of the enjoyment and value of life as tested by the 
final and truthful testimony that ends all experience, let 
us judge which of two good men had the truest view of 
the purpose and destiny of G-od's crowning work of crea- 
tion. The philosopher, when he last received the sacra- 
ment a with fervour and piety," declared it as his final 
testimony, "That life appeared to him mere vanity." 
The preacher and reformer, when in the portal of death, 
opening to the vista of heavenly light and glory, whis- 
pered to surrounding friends his still progressive and 
triumphing experience — " All is well : the seed of Grod 



104 PHILOSOPHY OF LOCKE. 

reigns over all, and over death itself. The power of God 
is over all, and the seed reigns over all disorderly spirits." 
"He died," says Penn, an attendant witness, "rejoicing 
in the hope of the Gospel," and must have felt that life 
to him had been full of deepest import, and himself the 
gifted instrument of inappreciable service to mankind. 
He must have felt, as he had ever most earnestly preached, 
that the lives of all are of momentous significance, as their 
tenor might influence human welfare on earth, or deter- 
mine their future happiness or wo. If, indeed, the end of 
this life ended all things to individual consciousness, then, 
truly, life would " appear to be mere vanity f its mingled 
draughts of joys and sorrows not worth the tasting; its 
scope and end without ennobling purpose or adequate de- 
sign. But, regarded in reference to its immortal destiny, 
and its sojourn here as a stage of probationary trial, every 
emotion and experience of life but manifests creative 
wisdom ; happiness and joy are the gifts of His beneficent 
bounty ; pain and sorrow the vindications of His violated 
laws, or the purifying preparations for the felicity of 
heaven. 

The briefest summary of the philosophy of Locke, is, 
that there are no innate ideas ; that all ideas are derived 
by sensation, through the external senses, and by reflec- 
tion, or the mind's own elaborations of the previously 
perceived sensations. The materialists thence infer that 
as sensation is owing to organized life, and the ideas that 



PHILOSOPHY OF LOCKE. 105 

constitute thought and mind are thence derived; so these 
depend upon the material organization, and must cease 
with its dissolution. But their fallacy is in overlooking 
the fact that it is something else than the material senses 
that receives and acts upon the perceived sensation ; that 
without the percipient mind had been first placed in the 
organized body, no sensation could be conducted to it ; that 
its presence must precede the first and faintest perception 
of even foetal infancy. That capacity must be innate, and, 
with the gift of life, come from the Creator. Then, again, 
the power of the percipient mind to act upon the perceived 
sensations, to compare, combine, analyze, infer, reason, 
and reflect, whence comes it ? Certainly not from the 
external sensations; these are but channels of informa- 
tion to the pre-existent mental capacity, but not them- 
selves creative of that capacity; they may enrich its 
resources, but are not itself. The image of external ob- 
jects pictured on the retina of the eye, the sounds that 
vibrate on the tympanum of the ear, nor yet the impres- 
sions made upon the sense of smell, the taste, or touch, 
reach the mind in material essence ; neither can the men- 
tal perception or thoughts evolved be material products. 
The nerves that serve the senses, and again obey the will, 
transmit no material thing to be perceived or constitute 
thought. And again, there are feelings, affections, hopes, 
fears, passions, and emotions, inherent in the human con- 
stitution, perceived of the mind, productive of thought, 



106 TRUE LEARNING NOT DEPRECIATED. 

determinative of conduct and character. These, as well 
as the intellect, give to man his elevation above all the 
rest of animated nature. His religious susceptibility — 
his spiritual perception — it; is that make him sensitive to 
the breathings of Divine Love, and bring him into the 
presence and under the operative teachings of the Spirit 
of Grod. These precious visitations of grace to the soul 
are as gratefully felt and certainly heard, as by the out- 
ward sensation the breeze that stirs the leafy grove, or 
wakes the iEolian chord to music ; but, it may also be, 
to the guilty conscience, that His voice shall be heard as 
in the storm and in the thunder of His lightnings. Yet 
is it the voice of God, whether heard in vindicatory pu- 
nishment, or in whisperings of peace and comfort to the 
contrite and repentant, or when prompting to missions 
of blessed charities and Gospel love. All that is good 
must come from the Source of all goodness, whether in 
disciplinary correction or in the overflow of the fountain 
of goodness and mercy. 

Let it be understood, however, that Friends do not dis- 
courage the acquisition of knowledge to any extent that 
the human capacity can truthfully develope it. It is 
only when the incessant occupation, or the sceptical spirit 
in which it may be pursued, tends to obstruct the growth 
of the precious seed of religious faith and feeling in the 
heart, that the pursuit is discountenanced. They fear 
not but that every truthful disclosure of the operations 



TRUE LEARNING NOT DEPRECIATED. 107 

of nature will reveal the wisdom and goodness of the 
Creator, and, rightly understood, will prompt the tribute 
of praise and adoration to Him. Philosophy then be- 
comes the handmaid of religion, and ministers to a more 
exalted demonstration ; expels from an impure and unin- 
telligent faith its superstitions and weakness, and permits 
the unclouded understanding to perceive the power and 
majesty of the Creator, and the heart of devotion to wor- 
ship in the confiding faith of the goodness and mercy of 
God. But philosophy, without religion, is to the moral 
and religious susceptibilities, what the arctic snows are to 
the world, the blighting cause of a perpetual sterility ; 
but with religion's warmth and genial feelings as the tem- 
perate zones, equally distant from the icy coldness of un- 
belief and the scorching heats of fanatic zeal and perse- 
cution, clothing life and character with consistency and 
beauty, and productive of blessed fruits. Light and 
knowledge, as means intrusted, will enhance the respon- 
sibility of a faithful stewardship, but without vital 
warmth and earnest purpose, in religious faith and Chris- 
tian charities, cannot save. The faithless to these high 
gifts bury even the ten talents intrusted for improve- 
ment and increase, and from such even that he hath shall 
be taken away. 

Men of the highest range of thought and success in 
philosophical attainment, have pursued their studies 
under the influence of a devout and prayerful spirit. 



108 TRUE LEARNING DEVOTIONAL. 

When the great task of forming the constitution of the 
United States hung in suspense from the prevalence of 
discordant views, the venerable Franklin moved that the 
favour of Heaven should be invoked, and the differences 
were composed. Sir Humphry Davy, in describing the 
qualifications of one so materially engaged as the chemi- 
cal philosopher, says — " his mind should always be awake 
to devotional feeling ; and in contemplating the variety 
and beauty of the external world, and developing its 
scientific wonders, he will always refer to that Infinite 
Wisdom, through whose beneficence he is permitted to 
enjoy knowledge. He will rise at once in the scale of 
intellectual and moral existence ; his increased sagacity 
will be subservient to a more exalted faith, and in propor- 
tion as the veil becomes thinner through which he sees 
the causes of things, he will admire more and more the 
brightness of the Divine Light, by which they are ren- 
dered visible." Dr. Rush, in the same spirit, entered 
upon his Inquiry into the Diseases of the Mind — as if 
" about to tread on consecrated ground," and thus pray- 
erfully begins the task, " I am aware of its difficulty and 
importance, and I thus implore that Being, ivhose govern- 
ment extends to the thoughts of all his creatures, so to 
direct mine, in this arduous undertaking, that nothing 
hurtful to my fellow citizens may fall from my pen, and 
that this work may be the means of lessening a portion 
of some of the greatest evils of human life." And in 



RELIGION OF THE HEART. 109 

describing the character of Dr. Sydenham, Dr. Rush 
declares — "I am disposed to ascribe to his snblime and 
just conceptions of the Deity, much of that force and 
extent of mind which enabled him to produce a revolution 
in medicine." 

It is apparent that piety and religion involve an expe- 
rience of emotions and feelings different from the abstract 
deductions of the faculties of the understanding. It is 
also evident that the results of the inward teaching of the 
G-ospel, commanding also the service of the mental facul- 
ties, immeasurably transcend all that mankind had before 
attained. At the Christian era, the Greeks had reached 
the highest civilization and knowledge of any people on 
earth ; but the Apostle Paul found them superstitiously 
worshipping gods u dwelling in temples made with hands." 
Him whom they darkly perceived and ignorantly wor- 
shipped, and to whom they had erected an altar with this 
inscription, " To the Unknown God/' he declared unto 
them as the " GJ-od that made the world and all things 
therein," and admonished them " that they should seek 
the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, 
though he be not far from every one of us." Their 
philosophy had given them but an obscure idea of this 
the " only true God," and they knew as little of " the 
words of eternal life," as Pilate, when he asked our 
Saviour, under trial before him, " What is truth ?" But 
let the fruits determine how much the Grospel first com- 

10 



110 RELIGION OF THE HEART. 

niitted to ignorant fishermen transcended the highest 
attainments of the most enlightened and acute philosophy 
the world had afforded. Socrates, the wisest and best of 
the Greeks, had a vague idea of an attendant spirit, but 
all superstitiously worshipped fancied deities represented 
in wood and stone; degrading practices and revolting 
crimes pervaded the heathen world, and their philosophy 
made no approach to the sublime and effective Truth as 
taught by Jesus, and brought home to the severest test 
of the highest sincerity of feeling. His disciples and 
followers were required to do unto others as they would 
be done unto ; they were not to yield to even an imagi- 
native impurity ; and as they prayed in truthful sincerity 
to an all-seeing God, in the hope to be forgiven, were 
they to forgive all others, though enemies, their trans- 
gressions ; to do good for evil ; and to love even those 
that hated them. No merely human philosophy of man's 
intellect could have soared to results so sublimely pure, 
so authoritatively self-exacting. And it is through devo- 
tional and holy feelings, and the Divine grace and inspi- 
ration shed upon them, that such truths are alone truly 
and spiritually discerned, and made fruitful in their appli- 
cation. It is thus a witness to the truth is developed in 
the souls of men, answering to and appreciative of the 
numberless truths set forth in the Holy Scriptures, that 
will the most effectively set at nought all cavilling at 
their authenticity. Nothing can be more true than the 



MAN AN IMPERFECT MEDIUM. Ill 

great moral precepts and religious doctrines there recorded, 
as tested by all fair experience and reflection; nothing 
elsewhere so purifying, exalting, and redeeming from sin 
and corruption ; nothing so satisfying and consolatory to 
the human soul, as the Life and Immortality of the 
G-ospel. 

The circumspection of one now commemorated, all of 
whose mature life was engaged in the service of an elder 
of the Church, admonishes me not to pass from this 
serious subject without the cautionary explanation re- 
quired by truth and experience. While fully acknow- 
ledging the perfect purity and truthfulness of the Divine 
light shed upon the souls of men, Friends are fully sen- 
sible of the imperfections of human nature, and how 
greatly an imperfect medium of transmission may refract, 
tinge, and discolour the rays of ineffable brightness. The 
capacity to receive is limited ; the range of thtfught is 
bounded ; passion may disturb, interest bias, self-will mis- 
lead, superstition cloud, sin taint, and disease discolour ; 
and that which descended in the purity of light become 
mixed, perverted, darkened, and lost. Of these disturb- 
ing causes, Friends have ever been and must ever be 
watchful; but exceptional occurrences cannot justly be 
seized upon by those of differing faith, to draw in ques- 
tion that Fountain of Light which is as essential to the 
moral and religious well-being of man as the sun to the 
physical world. Misguided zeal and wild enthusiasm 



112 COMMUNISM. 

may run into extravagance ; or the life of religion may 
be lost in cold and formal observances ; unauthorized pro- 
phecy may disappoint or be the unhappy cause of its own 
fulfilment ; and disobedience lead into error and utter 
darkness ; but the light of Truth remains for ever the 
same, and those who will receive it with purity of heart, 
and unperverted and unclouded intellect, will find in it 
the perfection of wisdom both to enlighten the under- 
standing and regulate the conduct. Instead of arrogating 
a claim to infallibility, no Christian people are more con- 
stantly wary and apprehensive of man's inherent infirnii- 
ties and liability to misapprehend, to err, or fall away 
from an humble dependence upon the true Guide; but 
the delinquencies of the erring and unfaithful cannot 
justly bring into question Truth itself. 

In the freedom of transition required by the progress 
of the Memoir, I proceed to other subjects. 

In the year 1825, Robert Owen, whose establishment 
at New Lanark, Scotland, in copartnership with William 
Allen, and other well-known philanthropists, gave him 
a favourable introduction in America, undertook to esta- 
blish a pattern community in New Harmony, Indiana. 
Some near and dear to our parents, were induced by 
benevolent considerations, to join the settlement ; but 
not without deep concern and apprehension on their part 
for the result. The 29th of 7 mo., 1825, P. Price writes, 
" The more I reflect on the subject, the more I am con- 



COMMUNISM. 113 

vinced of the delusion, and that it will end in disappoint- 
ment and ruin. I am more and more convinced that the 
foundation is laid in the sand and it cannot stand/' Just 
one year thereafter, in answer to a communication 
announcing the dissatisfaction of the parties referred to, 
he speaks of the result as expected, and as a system 
" established upon a foundation to he compared to a 
quicksand, that the more they built on it the deeper it 
would sink. It is utterly impracticable to form a com- 
munity that shall unite in promoting each others' happi- 
ness, without pure Christian principles of the greatest 
simplicity. It is in vain to say that all Christian religious 
sects are in error, and therefore there must be something 
more substantial to build upon. Although there may be 
a large proportion of professors who are not strictly 
governed by those pure principles, yet I trust there are 
many endeavouring with strict integrity to follow the 
Captain of their salvation. The error is not in the prin- 
ciple, but in the conduct of those who do not submit to be 
governed by it. The example of the truly upright fol- 
lowers of a crucified Saviour, has a powerful influence on 
society, and generally restraining power. When I con- 
sider what would be the effect of R. O.'s opinions, were 
they generally adopted, — that we are the creatures of 
circumstances, and, therefore, cannot be accountable for 
our actions, — having no will of our own to do good or 

bad, — no governing principle of action, and, therefore. 
10* 



114 PHILOSOPHY OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 

no fear of punishment for evil, or hope of reward for 
good actions, — I am convinced it must lead us back to a 
state far worse than the dark and heathen ages of the 
world, before the Gospel dispensation." 

The concern of Rachel Price, on the same occasion, 
was also expressed before the result was known, substan- 
tially in these terms : " We feel a deep interest in your 
welfare. You claim a great portion of my thoughts and 
desires for your preservation, by night and by day, — the 
last before I close mine eyes to sleep, and the first when I 
awake. Often, very often, when favoured with ability, is 
the secret and fervent petition put up to the Preserver of 
men, on your accounts, that He may be pleased to keep 
you from evil, and turn your hearts more fully to Him- 
self; — that you may feel for yourselves the necessity of 
Divine assistance, — to direct even in outward concerns. 
But how much more important the well-being of the im- 
mortal soul ! It is not in man that walketh to direct his 
own steps, but the good man's ways are ordered of the 
Lord. This is my firm belief, from experiencing His 
preserving power to be near even from early life to the 
present time, causing great uneasiness when I went 
astray, and affording sweet peace for doing well. I am 
also from experience fully confirmed in the belief that 
there are in the mind two opposite spirits striving in us, 
the one leading to virtue and happiness, the other draw 
ing into every kind of disorder and crime, consequently 



PHILOSOPHY OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 115 

to woe and misery. G-ood and evil are set before us, and 
we must assuredly have the power of choice, and on 
making that choice wisely must depend our happiness in 
this existence and in that hereafter. How awfully im- 
portant then the consideration ; and may it sink deeply 
into our minds. If persuaded to lay aside the belief of 
free agency, we should, with all our boasted knowledge, 
reason, and philosophy, sink into mere machines to be 
acted upon by circumstances. I acknowledge that much 
may be done by precept and example, in forming the 
character of youth. But there is a power of choice and 
a free agency to elect the course of action, with a conse- 
quent accountability ; and a gift of Divine grace dis- 
pensed to every individual of the human family for his 
preservation and everlasting happiness, — leaving him 
without excuse for disobedience and subject to the penalty 
thereof. I concur in the opinion that there is no effect 
without its cause ; but that there is a Great First Cause 
of all causes is evident. All the contrivance, harmony, 
wisdom, and wonders of the universe proclaim His works 
as the creation of an all-wise, omnipotent, and omni- 
present Creator. 

It is the Almighty power whose law connects 

The eternal chain of causes and effects ; 

'Tis He who made the eye and formed the listening ear, 

To improve the mind by what we see and hear. 



116 SOCIAL STRUCTURE. 

" To other animals He has given admirable instincts to 
guide them : ' Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her 
appointed times j and the turtle, and the crane, and the 
swallow, observe the time of their coming/ And to 
man He has given reason and understanding for his 
government ; but, above all, to him is also given, the free 
gift of His Divine grace and light, as a guide through 
life unto salvation." 

It was found out that this pattern community had 
truly been built upon a sandy foundation, and it sunk to 
rise no more. The judgments of those who had been 
attracted to it by delusive hopes were soon corrected by 
actual observation, and they returned to the bosom of 
general society, there to pursue their avocations for their 
individual profit and the aggregate advantage. They 
returned with a valuable lesson in human experience, the 
more firmly fixed in right principles, and the fervent 
prayers of the righteous were accomplished. It was 
there proved, as often before, and often may be again, 
that the only reliable incentive for efficient exertion for 
man's maintenance and improvement of his condition, is 
that of his own interest, by securing to himself by law 
the complete protection of the fruits of his own industry. 
This alone will secure from each individual the greatest 
exertion and thrift, and carry the wealth of the commu- 
nity to the highest aggregate amount. This is the hope 
of the poor man as well as of the rich, for what worthy 



SOCIAL STRUCTURE. 117 

and industrious poor man is there that does not expect 
himself to realize, or that his children may, property for 
his comfort and independence in age ? There will, of 
course, be cases of failure to succeed, and of inevitable 
hardships, but for these society must provide through her 
taxes, or the benevolent bestow their charities for relief. 
The enterprise begotten by this principle of action, gives 
a life and energy that keeps the social body in health 
and prosperity, — while communities, adopting a commu- 
nity of property, even where they can be held together 
by some peculiar fanaticism or religious profession, lose 
the highest incentive to human effort, and comparatively 
stagnate, become monotonous, and tend to extinction. It 
is when man is left free to choose and exert his own 
energies, under all the varying vicissitudes of society, as 
it has received its cast by all time and circumstances, 
physical, moral, and religious, that he achieves his highest 
success and obtains his greatest happiness. It is only 
then that life has a variety that gives it spice, and presents 
rewards to whet the appetite of highest enterprise. The 
natural development of the social arrangement is into 
families, — these smallest communities accomplishing the 
greater and better part of education, government, and 
protection, that maintain the order and security of society ' 
and in the domestic circle, unfolding the most pleasing 
attributes and affections of the human heart, delightful 



118 SOCIAL STRUCTURE. 

for all good men to contemplate, and God to behold, — 
for " God setteth the solitary in families." 

The writer freely confesses that he at the time sympa- 
thized with the experiment at New Harmony, so far as it 
promised a more equal and just distribution of the pro- 
ducts of labour, and to afford the labourer a better 
opportunity to rise in the scale of social improvement, 
and in the acquisition of wealth and influence. He 
yet thinks that there is a great dereliction of duty on the 
part of those who legislate and have power to regulate 
the employment of labour in this respect. Those having 
capital, skill, and influence, should be encouraged, by its 
being made their interest, to divide profits with those who 
labour in proportion to their successful exertion of skill 
and industry, and incorporated or limited partnership 
manufactories should be put in motion, as New England 
whaling vessels are sailed, for a proportionate benefit to 
all, thus giving to all the highest incentive for the exer- 
tion of the greatest thrift, industry, and skill. But the 
dividend of profit should go to the individual account, 
and be felt and taken as the separate resource of every 
separate family, whose independent existence and the 
sanctity of whose relations should never be broken in 
upon by any earthly polity. 

It was in advanced life, that the severest trials that 
proved the faith, patience, and love of the subjects of 
this Memoir, awaited them. The causes that had for 



DIVISION OF FRIENDS. 119 

some years before been actively operative, brought the 
difficulties in the Society of Friends to a crisis at the 
Yearly Meeting held in Philadelphia, in 1827. These 
causes related to doctrines, and the administration of the 
disciplinary affairs of the society. The influence that 
practically had guided the measures of the society was in 
comparatively a few, though all members of adult age were 
admitted to its ordinary meetings for discipline. All 
there were at equal liberty to express their views ; but 
only those spoke with weight whose communications 
carried with them the evidence of a Divine qualification 
and authority, and whose lives afforded the test of bear- 
ing good fruits. Such were recommended to the ministry, 
advanced to be elders, and appointed to superintend edu- 
cation, and to represent the society in a Meeting for Suf- 
ferings. These met in select meetings, and were not 
renewed by periodical appointments, but others were 
added as qualification appeared to be furnished and the 
service required. The frequent meetings of these select 
bodies afforded opportunities of a comparison of views, 
and naturally resulted in a concert of opinion and action. 
When the members of the body of the society became 
agitated upon the subject of doctrines and the steps 
taken to check the spread of those believed by many to 
be unsound, though thought by others to be edifying, a 
central influence was found to prevail in Philadelphia, 
and a jealousy arose through the society that this 



120 DIVISION OF FRIENDS. 

influence was operative to prejudge questions in its gene- 
ral meetings. Complaints were made that members were 
continued in the select bodies after their useful service 
had ceased, and after they failed truly to represent the 
views of those who appointed them ; that the Meeting for 
Sufferings had attempted to impose a declaration of faith 
contrary to the practice of ancient Friends, who had 
avoided fettering the society with a creed ; and that pro- 
minent members had unduly interfered with the progress 
in his religious service of an eminent minister, travelling 
under the usual sanction from another yearly meeting. 
With those thus complained of, the English ministers 
then travelling in this country concurred in sentiment, 
and the part they took served to awaken a further oppo- 
sition by arousing the American feeling of independence 
and jealousy of an influence in the mother country. On 
the other hand, they that were designated orthodox, be- 
lieved and charged that doctrines were preached and 
otherwise promulgated, that tended to lay waste the 
authority of the Holy Scriptures, to question the divinity 
of our Saviour, his propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of 
mankind and mediatorial advocacy with the Father : 
and believing that the vital interests of Christianity were 
at stake, felt justified by the extraordinary emergency in 
resorting to more than usual measures and in acting 
without the accustomed unity of the members, which had 
theretofore remarkably characterized the movements of 



DIVISION OF FRIENDS. 121 

the society. In fact, the bond of unity that had consti- 
tuted them one society, had been broken, and a forbearing 
condescension and united action was not to be expected 
from distinct bodies, acting under repelling influences, 
but only that each division should look to its own con- 
servation. The charges of unsoundness in faith by one 
portion against the other, were again generally denied, 
and a conformity with the doctrines of the founders of 
the society averred, and that whatever charges of unsound- 
ness were applicable now, were only such as were made 
against and applicable to ancient Friends by those from 
whom they had been gathered to unite as a society. 

Each division appealed to the writings of ancient 
Friends, to prove the correctness of its opinions, by the 
publication of numerous extracts from their writings. 
These were convincing to the members of each that they 
were standing on the true foundation, but did not recon- 
cile those in the opposing ranks. Whatever may have 
been the diversity of individual opinions among primitive 
Friends, the cementing power that united them was now 
lost ; and many leaders among modern Friends had not 
only inclined to opposing extremes of opinion left in the 
writings of their ancestors, but under the prevailing ex- 
citement and distrust, were mutually suspected and 
charged by opponents as having gone beyond the range 
of opinions formerly entertained. They might both, as 

they did, profess to believe in the doctrine of the inward 
ll 



122 DIVISION OF FRIENDS. 

light, and to support all of the invaluable testimonies of 
the society; but the bond of religious fellowship had 
been severed, their love had been replaced by distrust 
and repulsion of feeling, and they were no longer united 
by common sufferings inflicted by an intolerent and per- 
secuting world. 

Generally the minorities in the respective meetings 
retired from the majority, and each portion formed or 
kept its connexion with the yearly and subordinate meet- 
ings of discipline which it elected to join or continued to 
adhere to. The right of property became the subject of 
litigation in several of the States ; but it was apparent, 
that even before temporal tribunals, each litigant party 
was quite as anxious to establish its claim to be the true 
Society of Friends, as to gain the property in contest. To 
the credit of both, however, it can be truly said that 
they soon wearied of litigation; the controversy was 
found uncongenial and distasteful, and both yielded sup- 
posed rights of great value rather than continue a strife 
wasteful of their spiritual well-being and Christian pro- 
fession. 

The difficulty with those who adhered to the Yearly 
Meeting of 4th month, 1827, that continued its sittings 
upon regular adjournments at the same place, and over to 
the next year, was, that apprehending those in its con- 
nexions to be the only true society, it would be an aban- 
donment of obligatory trusts to come into any arrange- 



DIVISION OF FRIENDS. 123 

inent for the voluntary division of the property; while 
their opponents as sincerely claimed to be a portion of the 
Society of Friends, and to be equally within the purpose 
of the trusts. It was not to be expected of human 
nature that where so much feeling existed, such an 
arrangement could be consummated. The writer has no 
right to judge those so much better and purer than him- 
self, yet he could not but cherish the thought that if 
Friends could have come to an amicable and equitable 
division of property, they would have set an example to 
the world of more value than the property to be thereby 
sacrificed, fitting to be recorded with the history of their 
leading and glorious triumphs of principle, when they 
treated with and paid the Indians for lands that by char- 
tered right was already the Proprietary's; when as 
pioneers they secured religious toleration ; and when, 
obedient to the calls of humanity, they enfranchised their 
slaves, and zealously co-operated for the abolition of the 
slave trade. In scriptural authority, they had before 
them the beautiful and persuasive example of Abraham 
and Lot — each willing to yield to the other the right to 
take to the right hand or to the left, for the enjoyment 
of what a bountiful Providence had amply supplied for 
their flocks and herds, and their households and people. 

In respect to the legal right so to have adjusted the 
rights of property, when it is considered that it is a 
cherished principle of our jurisprudence to favour arnica- 



124 DIVISION OF FRIENDS. 

ble settlements, and that family compacts made for the 
determination of controversy, are upheld as of sacred 
obligation, because they avert litigation and preserve 
peace, it could hardly be doubted that the tribunals of 
justice would meet in the same spirit and most willingly 
affirm the amicable treaties of divided religious associa- 
tions. Can this be questioned when the Supreme Court 
of Pennsylvania has reiterated the recommendation that 
the litigant members of a divided religious society should 
" part in peace, having settled their claims to the property 
on the basis of mutual and liberal concession, " and ex- 
pressed the confident trust that, even in the contingency 
of revolution, " to the justice and forbearance of the 
majority of the association, whose very object is to deal 
justly, love mercy, and walk humbly, the minority can- 
not appeal in vain V 1 1 W. & S. 40. But no word of 
censure of Friends is intended to be here implied : it is 
only the indulgence of the thought, perhaps an enthusi- 
astic one, that those who have been always so self-sacrific- 
ingly just, and so prominent in the cause of humanity, 
might, even in this respect, have gone counter to all 
known practice, and transcended the example of the world. 
From an early period of life Philip Price had been a 
member of all those select bodies of Friends of infre- 
quent change of members. He participated in the 
opinion, and entertained a solemn conviction, that unsound 
doctrines had been preached and were making progress in 



DIVISION OF FRIENDS. 125 

the society. The Yearly Meeting to which he belonged 
did not provide by an amendment of the discipline to 
meet the extraordinary emergency, that a separation from 
its subordinate meetings should be accepted as a resigna- 
tion, or make such act itself a cause of disowninent, 
without the visitation and effort at reclamation which the 
discipline required in its usual course of administration. 
The task of disowning equal and often greater numbers, 
was left as an imperative but very onerous duty on the 
members, in stations requiring them to carry out the 
requisitions of the discipline. These visitations were 
regarded by the parties visited and disowned, and who 
recognised their own body as the true society, as useless 
aggravations of the existing differences and feelings ; 
and it was not to be expected that such visits would gene- 
rally be received with complacency or meekness. This 
unwelcome duty Philip Price performed among friends 
and neighbours ; and also as one of a committee to visit 
the Southern Quarter, where but few remained in the 
same connexion to perform the duty. The respect and 
veneration felt for the man, caused him to be received 
with kindness, but the ordeal was the severest his kind 
nature had ever been subjected to, and sorrow and tears 
were often his portion. Yet he did his duty according to 
what he believed required of him, to the acquittal Of his 
own conscience, and of his obligation to his religious 

society and his Creator. 
11* 



126 DIVISION OF FRIENDS. 

A similar allotment of service did not devolve on 
Rachel Price. As a minister, she was not so much ex- 
pected to take an active part in disciplinary duties ; and 
as such she had felt bound to be watchful for her own 
preservation and usefulness ; and to keep her mind and 
feelings disengaged from those matters of controversy 
which divided the members of the society. She dwelt 
in the Gospel love that had so much distinguished 
Friends in prior times, and her heart yearned towards 
all, that they might dwell in humility at the feet of the 
Saviour : and it was in the assemblies of the youth ; of 
her own descendants ; and of a few undivided meetings, 
that she most freely poured forth her feelings in Gospel 
ministration, and experienced the sweetest relief and con- 
solation, declaring unto them, " By this shall all men 
know that ye are my disciples, that ye have love one for 
another." 

The division in the society carried their children and 
remoter descendants into different religious associations. 
This was a source of deep trial to the most affectionate 
of parents, and to the children by whom they were be- 
loved. They were separated in the performance of man's 
highest duty, — in their religious worship, — with which 
the domestic affections delight to commingle ; yet the 
parental and filial attachment withstood this severest of 
trials. The language often repeated in her religious 
communications was now spoken with an especial signifi- 



RETROSPECTION. 127 

cance and deeply impressive effect : the maternal appeal 
was made in the words of the Divine Master — that their 
fellowship should bear His test of discipleship, and that 
they should experimentally know that " God is Love, and 
he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in 
him." In proportion to the laceration was this balm 
graciously dispensed to heal the wound. The parents' 
love endured with life. The filial and fraternal affection 
of their descendants survives the grave ; and that it may 
survive to all when time shall be no more to them, is 
their fervent prayer. 

In reference to the former condition of the society 
within her recollection, and afterwards as she saw it when 
torn by divisions and scattered asunder, I find the fol- 
lowing expression of the feelings of our beloved mother ; 
uttered not in censure of any, but in lamentation of visi- 
ble results, restrictive of her own exercises in the Gospel 
ministry. " When I consider those days of favour to 
our once happy society, and compare them with the pre- 
sent, my mind is clothed with mourning, and according 
to my small measure, I can adopt the language of the 
prophet Joel, when he says — l Let the bridegroom go forth 
of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet : Let the 
priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the 
porch and the altar, and let them say — Spare thy people, 
Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the 
heathen should rule over them ; wherefore should they 



128 RECURRENCE TO FIRST PRINCIPLES. 

say among the people, Where is their God V May the 
Lord be jealous of His name and pity the people." * * 
" Of latter times, I have felt my way very much closed 
from frequent communication in the exercise of my gift, 
or in travelling to visit friends in their meetings, from 
causes over which I had no control. I desire to wait in 
patience and resignation, endeavouring to know the 
Divine Will, and to do it according to my ability, having 
no will of my own, but leaving it to Him that hath the 
key of David : He that openeth and no man shutteth, 
and shutteth and no man rightly openeth. If it should 
be His will that my way should yet be closed, and my 
harp hung on the willow, and my tongue cleave to the 
roof of my mouth, yet may I remember Zion, and prefer 
Jerusalem above my chiefest joy. This language is often 
the companion of my mind — < Be still, and know that I 
am God/" 

Each division has since felt the value of the lesson of 
1827, in its bitter consequences, and a forbearance has 
been exercised by each under subsequent difficulties, that if 
then mutually observed, it is believed, would have averted 
the rent of that period. Individuals might have been dis- 
owned, but the integrity of the body have been preserved. 
To the truth and wisdom of the following passages in the 
Address of the Yearly Meeting, held in the Fourth 
month, 1847, nothing can be added. " The enemy of 
truth and of the soul's salvation, has succeeded by various 



DOCTRINES OF FRIENDS. 129 

stratagems in marring the beauty and peace of Zion, and 
it behooves all those who are desirous of seeing the waste 
places built up, and the former paths restored, to put 
shoulder to shoulder, and walking by the same rule, and 
minding the same thing, rally to first principles, and 
labour harmoniously in the great work of our duty." 
u Against these dangers which threaten the Church, there 
is but one defence, — a hearty and practical return to First 
Principles. The light of Christ which shineth in every 
man, which is the swift reprover of sin-j and shines more 
and more in the humble and obedient soul, unto the per- 
pect day, will, if we follow its guidance in all things as it 
makes them manifest, lead us into all truth and unto all 
humility and holiness." " This humble, consistent walk- 
ing, a godly zeal, the love of each other in that fellow- 
ship which is in the ever-blessed and unchangeable Truth, 
would again distinguish us as a people, and it would 
again be said of us as of old, ( See, how these Quakers 
love one another V " 

The " Appeal for the Ancient Doctrines of Friends," 
from which the preceding extracts are made, was pre- 
pared and issued by those who had twenty years before 
combated what they believed to be errors of heretical 
tendency, but now, turning to the other extreme of the 
doctrinal platform, exerted the same ability and research 
to exculpate the Society of Friends from the imputation 
of opinions nearly allied to those of the churches from 



130 DOCTRINES OF FRIENDS. 

which ancient Friends had separated. Thus prepared 
with the care and wariness induced by the recollection 
of the recent history of the society on the one hand, and, 
on the other, in refutation of writings assimilated in 
doctrine to the views of the persecutors of the founders 
of their religious community, the " Appeal" is based in 
neither extreme, and is a close and careful exposition of 
the doctrines of the society, distinctly recognising " the 
more sure word of prophecy" to be "the Word nigh in 
the heart" — from which the Scriptures came, and in and 
by which the Scriptures are to be interpreted. 

It becomes the writer to speak with the greatest diffi- 
dence upon the subject of doctrines, but he would be de- 
relict to the duty he has ventured to assume, were he to 
leave unstated a summary of the faith of his parents. 
Their faith was Orthodox, in 'the sense that the Society 
of Friends had always been orthodox. Theirs was not a 
dead faith, unproductive of good works. It was a faith, 
believing in the authenticity and Divine authority of the 
Holy Scriptures, but understanding them with the light 
of the Holy Spirit that inspired their penmen ; a faith 
believing in the "miraculous conception, birth, miracles, 
doctrines, crucifixion, and resurrection of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ;"* but ever waiting on His spiritual 
appearance in the heart, who "brought life and immor- 
tality to light;" a faith believing in a reconciliation, for- 

* Letter of P. Price. 



DOCTRINES OF FRIENDS. 131 

giveness, and justification through Him, but to be pre- 
ceded by a repentance of sin, a regeneration and sanctifi- 
cation of the soul, — a being justified because made just 
by the operations and a submission to His Holy Spirit, 
without which, all human efforts, in worship, in prayer, 
and in sanctification, would be vain and unavailing; and 
believing, that without such repentance and justification, 
in the final judgment man will be adjudged according to 
the deeds done in the body. 

Friends, in all times, since they rose, have endured the 
charge of heterodoxy from sects claiming to be orthodox. 
The ground of the charge has mainly been that Friends 
have preferred to adhere to the Spirit of the Scriptures 
of Truth, as they find them to have been written ; refus- 
ing, therefore, to adopt unscriptural terms and deductions 
made from them in man's will and wisdom. They have 
preferred that the evidences of their faith should be 
found in a life of righteousness, in their obedience to the 
spiritual appearances of our Saviour and to His com- 
mandments left while on earth, wherein each individual 
must experience the work of his own regeneration, re- 
demption, and salvation to be wrought in his own soul. 
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath 
appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodli- 
ness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, 
and godly, in this present world/' Instead of falling 
short of others, true Quakerism is religion's power in its 



132 SEPARATION DEPLORED. 

highest efficacy — is sincere, self-sacrificing, earnest, and 
devoted, in love to G-od and love to man — a fervent be- 
lief in Him whom to believe in is " everlasting life" — 
the Messiah, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Many others than members have lamented events so 
keenly deplored by the subjects of this Memoir, and by 
all who have been faithfully concerned for the welfare of 
the Church. The conservative example for all that 
regarded good order and sound principle, and the unceas- 
ing philanthropical labours of Friends, had ever been of 
salutary and pervading influence, and it was a source of 
regret to all who could appreciate their virtues, that 
they should be in any degree shorn of their power of 
usefulness. Their mutual love and fraternal aid were a 
marvel to others, and while their charity to their own poor 
is so much unseen as to be little known, their affluence 
of love and charity have also unceasingly flowed to others 
beyond the pale of their society. It is true they ever 
warn their youth to abstain from the vain fashions and 
seductive allurements of the world, and to keep up the 
hedging of a distinctive dress and language, but when 
proved and fortified by experience, their humane and 
gifted emissaries, clothed with the armour of Christ, have 
ever been obedient to the calls of humanity, and main- 
tained the Christian warfare for the reformation of man- 
kind — of the action of mind upon mind, of feeling upon 
feeling, and of the principle of truth over error, and of 



SEPARATION DEPLORED. 133 

goodness over evil. To the well-wishers of human pro- 
gress and improvement, whether within or without the 
society, therefore, it was cause of mourning that the 
spirit of discord could find entrance into such a frater- 
nity of love and peace — that so beautiful a temple of 
harmonious proportion as this living Church, could have 
been riven to its foundation. But it was those who had 
long enjoyed the spiritual benefits and happiness of the 
religious association that most keenly felt the lacerations 
of broken ties and alienated friendships — mournfully be- 
held their waste places, and, in the bitterness of sorrow, 
heard the songs of Zion as in exile from brethren and the 
spiritual homes where they had worshipped together. 

Were it permitted of one who can claim no influence 
to utter a prayerful wish, it would be that the blessed 
Power who is ever operative to restore the disturbed 
equilibriums of His natural creation, who beneficently 
heals the wounded, " binds up the broken-hearted," and 
is ever shedding the light of His glorious Truth, should 
continue to allay all unhappy feelings, and as His holy 
love shall draw His people to Himself, He will ever draw 
them into a Gospel fellowship and unity with each other, 
and though they should not worship together, and 
u neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, worship 
the Father," — yet may they worship Him in the same 
spirit and in the same truth and faith. And may they 

never forget the value of those testimonies of truth and 
12 



134 WILLIAM JACKSON. 

humanity which their comuion religious ancestors upheld 
and established under the sharpest persecutions, and that 
the righteous principles they cherished were dearer to 
them than property or life; that the history of their 
descendants, as theirs, may, as the course of a pure and 
beneficent stream, brightly contrast with the dark and 
crimsoned annals of mankind, and reflect the glory of 
Him that is the fountain of all light. 

During the summer of 1833, Philip and Kachel Price 
visited together many of their friends and relatives in 
Maryland, and parts of Pennsylvania, in going and 
returning. The occasion seems to have been social, 
rather than a religious service. Returning, they visited 
and were welcomed by their venerable friends William 
and Hannah Jackson. The former, then in his eighty- 
first year, had from infirmity ceased to attend meetings 
of worship, but his mind was bright, filled with love, and 
wakeful to the condition of the religious world. On its 
being remarked to him that it was an inexpressible 
favour, when the body was afflicted so as to prevent 
attendance at places of Divine worship, to know " that 
He whom we meet to worship is not confined to temples 
made with hands, but continues to condescend to meet 
with those who sincerely seek Him, even in their lonely 
habitations ;" William replied, " Yes, — my love is to- 
wards them, — and in all our weakness of body and mind, 
He permits us to feel and know that we are not forsaken, 



WILLIAM JACKSON. 135 

by the frequent incomes of Divine love in our hearts, 
whereby the mind is strengthened to hold on in its way, 
bearing in remembrance that here we have no continuing 
city, and that our generation must pass and another 
arise." He expressed for himself an entire resignation 
and willingness to pass away. He referred with a lively 
interest to the rise of the society, and made a comparison 
between the present and the times of G-eorge Fox, when 
there was great commotion and unsettlement about reli- 
gion, and the different sects contended for supremacy. 
But these " did not sufficiently consider that an outward 
profession of faith, however good, without the experi- 
mental knowledge of the operation of the Divine Spirit 
on the secret heart, is not sufficient for our purification, 
justification, or redemption. Things being in this state, 
George Fox invited the people to Christ within, the hope 
of glory, the true light which lightens every man. As 
they gathered to this, as the standard of light and life, 
and settled under its operations in the heart, withdrawing 
from outward ceremonies and forms, there was a great 
revival of true religion. I have believed, on weighing 
the subject, that if the people in this land, and in this 
our day and time of commotion, would centre down in 
their minds to the same Divine principle in the heart, 
there would be again a gathering to the Light, and the 
knowledge of the Lord would increase a thousand fold, 
and as faithfulness should be kept to, the reign of the 



136 TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS. 

Prince of Peace would more and more abound." The 
narrator, Rachel Price, adds, " I cannot convey the feel- 
ings of my own mind more fully than by. saying they 
have long been in accordance with what he expressed in 
the interesting interview we had with him." 

The Society of Friends, from the settlement of the 
province of Pennsylvania by William Penn, following his 
good example of kindness and justice, in a spirit of grate- 
ful humanity, has ever maintained friendly relations with 
the Indian tribes, and its members have devoted much 
time and means for their improvement in the arts of 
civilized life, and their moral and religious instruction. 
When more contiguous, the care of the society was more 
immediate and constant, begetting frequent interviews, 
and councils together, and addresses full of interest and 
instruction. For these injured and expelled sons of the 
forest, the sympathies of Rachel Price were always in- 
tensely awake. The records of the councils held with 
Friends and Deputy Governors, speeches delivered, &c, 
were procured and copied by her own hand. When the 
Cherokees published a newspaper, it was subscribed for, 
read, and contributed to, by her. She wrote to encourage 
them in the worship of the " Great Spirit/' — the " Com- 
mon Father" of all, — to abstain from the use of ardent 
spirits, — from holding slaves, — holding up to. their view, 
that " Surely the God of mercy and justice will one day 
or other plead the cause of the oppressed African, as 



LETTER TO PRESIDENT JACKSON. 137 

well as that of the afflicted Indian ; He who of one 
blood created all nations on the earth, — who is our com- 
mon Father, — who has in his Divine goodness and mercy 
granted a portion of his Holy Spirit, as a witness placed 
in each of our hearts." 

When that tribe was required by the policy of the 
General Government to remove to the west, she felt bound 
to raise her voice, though that of a feeble woman, in a 
feeling, pathetic, and solemn remonstrance, addressed to 
the President of the United States, pleading with him for 
the Indian, as she had with the Indian for the African. 
To be sure no result was likely to come from the appeal, 
but it was uttered in that authority that she was not at 
liberty to disobey. Quoting the Great Commandment of 
our Saviour, " that whatsoever ye would that men should 
do unto you, do ye even so to them," reciting the obliga- 
tions of treaties formed, the example of Penn, and the 
duty of kindness and protection to the original owners 
of the soil, she proceeded to say, " The sympathetic feel- 
ings in the minds of many of the people are very 
much awakened on behalf of the natives remaining within 
the limits of some of the southern states, whose rulers 
seem determined to dispossess them, and drive them from 
the land of their forefathers, and from their comfortable 
homes, — made so by their own industry and economy, 
under the encouragement of former administrations of our 

government." " Permit a feeble female voice to plead 
12* 



138 LETTER TO PRESIDENT JACKSON. 

for that distressed, afflicted people, — for sixty thousand 
individuals, equally the objects of redeeming love and 
mercy with ourselves, who profess the sacred name of 
Christians." " We deeply feel for our beloved countiy, 
lest by any rash or cruel act upon the helpless, the Al- 
mighty Power may see meet to avenge their wrongs. 
Although He is a God of mercy, He is also a God of 
justice, and will recompense us according to our works. 
'For the crying of the poor and the sighing He will arise. ' 
May the prayers of the sincere of heart be availing with 
Him who can turn the heart of man, and cause him to 
know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men. 
' It is shewn unto thee, oh man, what is good, and what 
the Lord thy God hath required of thee, — to deal justly, 
to love mercy, and walk humbly before thy God. ; If 
man, presuming in his own strength and power, persists 
in his own will to raise the iron hand of oppression, to 
exterminate the unoffending and helpless, may we not 
fear that He that hath all power in heaven and on earth, 
may see meet to turn it on the head of the oppressor ?" 
" May the President of the United States be willing to 
pause and reflect, remembering that 'not the hearers are 
just before God, but the doers of the Law shall be justi- 
fied/ " " We are both advanced in life, and the time fast 
approaching when the awful language may be sounded in 
our ears, ' Steward, give up thy stewardship, for thou 
mayst be no longer steward.' May the King of kings, 



LAST JOURNEY. 139 

and Lord of lords, who is God over all the families of the 
earth, incline thy heart to justice, truth, and mercy." 

In behalf of the Indians, in answer to the allega- 
tion against them that " civilization must displace bar- 
barism" — she advocated, in their Gazette, their right to 
remain on the footing of their advanced civilization. " Is 
not this realized in and by the Cherokee nation and 
several other tribes ? It would no doubt spread far and 
wide under the protecting care of a kind Providence, 
encouraged by a mild, pacific government, — like that of 
our worthy predecessor (William Penn), or under the 
fatherly, fostering protection of such a President as 
George Washington. Notwithstanding you may be 
driven from the land of your forefathers by the powerful 
hand of man, even beyond the Rocky Mountains, remem- 
ber that you cannot go beyond the care of Him who re- 
gards even the sparrows, of Him who said to his disciples, 
' are not ye of more value than many sparrows V " 

In the year 1836, Our beloved parents made their last 
journey together, to visit their daughter in Susquehanna 
county, on the north border of Pennsylvania, and other 
friends in the state of New York. Our mother made 
some notes of impressions on this journey, and it is in- 
teresting to observe the effects of new objects upon her 
reflective mind. It was probably her first ride by steam 
power, and she could not but regard the locomotive with 
its fire and puffing, whisking its long train along, as having 



140 LAST JOURNEY. 

" an infernal appearance/' and its rapid motion, like fly- 
ing through the air from time to eternity. The slower 
pace in the canal boat up the Susquehanna, permitted 
time for observation and reflection, in better keeping with 
her own feelings. " We passed moderately along at the 
rate of four miles an hour, which afforded us an opportu- 
nity of looking upon the scenery ; the works of art and 
the sublime works of the Creator ; the lofty mountains 
and the rocks hanging over the river, — the beautiful 
flowers of various kinds, all adding to the grandeur or 
loveliness of the scene, and producing a sweet sensation, 
comparable to the calm decline of life, when the day's 
work seems to be almost done. There was one sub- 
ject of reflection which occurred often in our travelling, 
particularly on the rivers and mountains, striking my 
mind with great force, particularly in passing up the 
Susquehanna, — that all these romantic scenes had been 
from time immemorial in the possession of the Indians, — 
their peaceful homes, — their hunting grounds, — their 
fisheries ; where were their wigwams, and all the com- 
forts they required in their wandering manner of life. 
But now, they are driven off by the whites from these 
abodes, designed no doubt by our Great Benefactor for 
their benefit as well as ours, — a poor and oppressed peo- 
ple, permitted now to have no share of what was justly 
their own. In solemn retrospect, the hillocks I see appear 



LAST JOURNEY. . 141 

to my imagination as the graves of the nations that have 
passed away!" 

Her notes mention their cordial reception by their warm 
friend, Charles Miner, near Wilkesbarre, and speak of a 
visit with him to the Baltimore mine of coal, but not of 
the impressions and remarks there made, which much 
interested his mind. To one who had never seen such an 
excavation into the interior of the earth, between massive 
jet columns of coal, supporting at great height a roof of 
slate, that itself sustained the incumbent hill, the impres- 
sion made was grand and imposing, and not unmingled 
with emotions of astonishment at the boldness of man, 
in thus venturing to penetrate and disturb the bowels of 
the earth — but was quickly followed by the grateful 
acknowledgments to an all-wise and bountiful Creator, 
who had thus treasured up in ages long past, this resource 
of fuel and comfort for the present and future generations 
of men. 

But a recent letter from the pen of her attentive con- 
ductor, gives more of the details of this visit to the mine : 
" When we came in full view of those lofty pillars and 
vast caverns, seemingly dark from the contrast with the 
glare of day in which we stood, she paused, and her eye 
passed over the scene in a deliberate survey. Presently 
she began with much cheerfulness to observe, and to 
inquire. The unmistakeable traces of vegetable impres- 
sions, and even of the roots and stumps of large trees in 



142 LAST JOURNEY. 

the slate-rocks, were objects of special notice and exa- 
mined with delighted curiosity ; a few for their own beauty, 
but chiefly as they impressed her mind with their great 
antiquity ) and especially as furnishing strong proof that 
coal was not a mineral but of vegetable origin. We 
*rather waited her pleasure to move, than led the way to 
enter the mine. Her inquiries, remarks, cheerfulness, 
and evident enjoyment, were a source of pleasure to us 
all. After examining the various layers or seams of coal 
apparent in the pillars, differing in thickness and quality, 
and divided by their lamina of slate ; and listening to the 
suggestion that they indicated that the whole body of coal 
was not formed at one time, but by successive layers, and 
at long intervals, I ventured to speak of the pecuniary 
value of the mine, showing the results by cubic yards 
and per acre, to be very great. She smiled, but made no 
reply. Having completed the exploration, we returned 
near to the place of entrance and paused, the mind of 
your excellent mother apparently absorbed in thought. 
A deep feeling of solemnity seemed to come over us all. 
After a few minutes' silence, she spoke to this effect : 
' The visit to this place has been to me a source of 
rational pleasure and desirable information. In it are 
combined, in a wonderful degree, the beautiful and in- 
structive, from objects of minute examination unto the 
sublime in rude magnificence and vastness. I cannot 
conceive that an intelligent and rightly disposed mind 



LAST JOURNEY. 143 

could behold what we have seen to-day without its 
awakening a very solemn train of reflections. I am sen- 
sible these mines give profitable employment to many 
labourers, and thus render many families comfortable, 
and am aware of their great commercial value ; but my 
mind has been led to consider them in a light less worldly, 
but not less worthy of our regard. These cold but fruit- 
ful northern latitudes seem in the future destined to be 
the residence of a numerous population ; but food and 
raiment are not alone sufficient ; fuel is indispensable to 
their comfort, if not to their existence. Hence the de- 
posits of these inexhaustible supplies of indestructible 
fuel, in positions where so much is needed, are to my mind 
additional demonstrations of the wisdom and goodness of 
our beneficent Creator; and 4hat we, his children, are 
the objects of his constant care. Cherishing these reflec- 
tions must awaken in every breast renewed feelings of 
gratitude to the Divine Spirit, and of praise and thanks- 
giving to His Holy Name/ The outline is here, my dear 
friend, but to pretend to verbal accuracy would be pre- 
suming. The latter part of her remarks were more full, 
very pleasing, and very solemn. That they were deeply 
impressive on my mind you are aware — more so than any 
discourse I ever heard. I give you the rose-tree, but 
neither the fragrance nor the flowers." 

Continuing their journey, they were pleased with the 
lakes and scenery in the interior of New York, and of the 



144 SOCIAL GATHERINGS. 

North River, on the return ; met a variety of company, 
and had new ideas to form of persons and things j " and 
in every situation found some congenial minds with whom 
we could mingle in conversation and unite in feeling." 
It was felt that it might be, as it proved, their last jour- 
ney on earth j and it is added, " We were often reminded 
of the great and final journey from which no traveller 
will return, to the city where nothing that is impure can 
enter. How awful, and oh, what need there is to remem- 
ber the injunction, * watch and pray, and that continually, 
lest ye enter into temptation;' but the consoling promise 
is that l in every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, they 
that fear God, and work righteousness, shall be accepted 
of Him/ Such is His universal love to mankind, that 
1 all that will come may come, and partake of the waters 
of life freely, without money and without price.' " 

In their deportment towards their children and govern- 
ment of all under their authority, there was no austerity. 
The love and respect that all bore for them, and the fear of 
wounding their feelings, were sufficient restraints against 
disobedience. The young were encouraged by kindness 
to seek their presence and confide in them. The society 
of youth was congenial to their feelings, and the social 
meetings of their numerous relatives, and the friends of 
their children, under the paternal roof, were of frequent 
repetition, and the occasion of both enjoyment and in- 
struction. There they often gathered their descendants, 



SOCIAL GATHERINGS. * 145 

numbering, before the death of either, over fifty indi- 
viduals, besides the husbands or wives of their ten child- 
ren, who also were all received within the family circle 
with the same cordial affection as their own children. In 
that beautiful scene and hospitable mansion, to which the 
" untravelled hearts' ; of their children constantly return, 
as to the brightest spot and dearest home of earth, did 
they often collect their flock, and in the social gathering 
they never failed spiritually to obey the Divine injunc- 
tion, " feed my lambs. " The last occasion, during their 
lives, of a general assemblage of this description was in 
1834, the fiftieth year of their marriage, at their former 
homestead and natal home of their children. Here, 
where their son-in-law and daughter maintained the an- 
cient hospitality, met the descendants of all ages from 
infancy to past middle life, and after the usual entertain- 
ment, gathered in stillness and silence. It was felt to be 
the last occasion when so many of us would ever convene, 
and that the patriarchal parents could not long survive. 
These considerations awakened the natural sensibilities 
of parents and children ; but greater was the paternal 
solicitude then expressed that their descendants should 
obey the Divine and inward guide, live in righteousness, 
and continue in that harmony and love with each other, 
which had ever through life been to them the cause of 
heartfelt thankfulness ; and remembering that the old 
must die, the young may die, and the middle-aged do 

13 



146 • LAST ILLNESS 

die — to prepare for the final accountability, that all might 
meet again in happiness, no one missing from the joyful 
assemblage. They had in all things endeavoured to fulfil 
their duties to their offspring, — to instil into their minds 
the precepts of justice to man, and the cheering hopes 
of Christian salvation, — and as they had striven to per- 
form their duties, their earnest supplications were raised 
that their children should in like manner endeavour to 
perform their duty to their offspring, — that goodness, 
justice, harmony, and religious faith might flow as a 
stream through the succession of generations. 

On the 12th day of the 2d month, 1837, Philip Price 
was attacked with pleurisy, which, increasing in violence, 
produced intense suffering, in breaking down a naturally 
strong constitution. His children, relatives, and friends, 
were allowed free admission to the sick chamber, he de- 
siring their presence, saying in the words of Addison, 
that he wished them to " see in what peace a Christian 
can die." They sat in quietness with him during a sick- 
ness prolonged through two weeks, deeply sympathizing 
with the sufferer, and instructed by his patience and ex- 
pressions. They truly felt that 

" The chamber -where the good man meets his fate, 

Is privileged beyond the common walk 

Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of Heaven." 

In the early part of the illness, the suffering was so 
intense, he feared that with the desire for bodily relief, he 



LAST ILLNESS. 147 

could not keep the patience. He had full confidence in 
the Divine Power, but felt stripped of the evidences of 
His presence. His beloved companion was led to recall 
to his recollection the situation and language of the 
Divine Master, while on the cross, when He was buffeted, 
ignominiously treated, and felt forsaken ; and the pathetic 
language then used by the dear Redeemer, " My God, 
my G-od, why hast thou forsaken me ;" that it was not 
for His own state that He was thus baptised, but for the 
sins of the whole world ; thus setting an example of sub- 
mission and patience to His Father's will, under the 
severest trials ; and she fully believed that if he likewise 
dwelt in a measure of the same patience he would yet 
have to praise and testify of the Lord's goodness and 
mercy to his soul ; and this language of encouragement 
brought to him consolation in his continued great bodily 
sufferings. He regarded this as his last illness, felt a 
submission to his approaching end, and that the way was 
clear before him. He felt at peace with all mankind, 
knew not that he had an enemy in the world, that he had 
done all in his power to assist others, had done what he 
could to educate his children, but had not been concerned 
to lay up much riches for them. The quietude of the 
hushed household of scholars was grateful to his feelings ; 
they seemed, he said, to learn of one another to be kind, 
respectful, and considerate. Little children were called 
to receive the parting kiss, with the expression that even 



148 LAST ILLNESS. 

they might remember the event 3 and he desired that 
they should not only be taught useful learning, but in- 
structed in things of a substantial, divine nature. As 
those relatives and friends visited him who had leaned on 
him for protection and kindness, his regret seemed 
keenest ; that he must leave them now to love and help 
one another. He admonished all not to defer the work 
of preparation for the scene they were now witnessing. 
It was then " a poor time to lay up treasure in Heaven. 
Too many were deferring it to a bed of sickness ; but it 
should be an every-day work of the whole life, and that 
all business should be pursued with the affections placed 
on high, and the world beneath our feet. On the en- 
trance of that beloved minister of the Gospel, Sarah Em- 
len, he said, " Thou knowest how faithfully I have endea- 
voured to follow in the footsteps of the Divine Master, 
devoting my life and best ability to His service;" and re- 
ceived the reply, " Well do I know it and can testify to it, 
and I trust thou wilt be abundantly rewarded for thy sub- 
mission to the Divine requisitions of our Holy Saviour." 
Addressing his beloved wife, he said, " We have been 
united in the bonds of endeared affection for more than 
fifty years, and now we are about to suffer a final separa- 
tion on earth. I have consolation in believing that we 
have endeavoured to instil into the minds of our children 
the spirit of love, and have set such an example before 
them as in some degree to be effectual, and desired that 



LAST ILLNESS. 149 

this feeling should continue among them." " We have 
had many bitter cups through life together, but nothing 
to be compared with the rejoicings we have had." 

As his sickness continued, aud his end approached, a 
sweeter peace, a firmer confidence, and a brighter hope, 
dawned upon the sufferer. " I could not have thought 
the way could be made so cl^ar. For some days I have 
felt my close to be near. I know not why it is — it is 
no merit of my own that death is not appalling. It is 
admirable mercy ! It is adorable goodness ! It is 
adorable goodness ! I hope I am not deceived ; but I 
could not feel this peace, were I not enabled to trust in 
His armour, whom I have endeavoured to serve all my 
life long. The longest life is almost too short to prepare 
for eternity." " 6 Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive 
the good things that the Lord hath in store for those who 
love Him/ " " The natural eye can have no perception 
of the splendour of the New Jerusalem ; no outward re- 
presentation can give an idea of it." u The Divine Wis- 
dom, it is all sufficient j oh, do attend to it, the uncreated 
Word from eternity." " Verily, there is a reward for the 
righteous." " How short is the space from earth to 
Heaven ! It seems but a step." On First-day, the 26th 
of the 2d month, much relieved of bodily pain, he gradu- 
ally sank away, and with the close of the day, departed 

in that holy quiet, he had so much enjoyed, surrounded 
13* 



150 LAST ILLNESS. 

by his beloved wife, children, relatives and friends; 
his last request, "that they might partake of a holy 
quiet" — and in that quiet his precious soul took its flight 
from time to eternity ; and after a solemn and prolonged 
pause, that awful stillness was broken by the sweet tones 
of one whose voice had ever called her children to a 
" holy quiet" and everlasting peace. Then most impres- 
sively were they made to feel, and ever will remember, 
that at the death of the righteous, 

"A holy quiet reigns around, 
A calm which life nor death destroys ; 

Nothing disturbs that peace profound, 
"Which his unfettered soul enjoys." 

And there did they witness and verify the injunction to 
" Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the 
end of that man is peace." 

At a subsequent period, his bereft partner, adverting 
to this interesting scene, said, " Many of his dear de- 
scendants and friends were seated round his bed in 
solemn silence, and were permitted to partake of that 
holy quiet, and to witness the calm resignation of his 
mind ; my soul bearing him company through the shades 
of death, to the happy mansions of eternal bliss ;" and 
as a soul there welcomed " among saints and angels, and 
the spirits of the just made perfect," did she afterwards 
seem to behold him as with the perception of actual 
vision. 



EXPRESSION OF SYMPATHY. 151 

The voice of sorrow and sympathy came from many 
sources, but from none more sweetly than from the gifted 
pen of one of kindred feelings, appreciative of the like 
qualities and character, in the following letter, and in an 
obituary furnished the Wyoming Herald. 

" Retreat, March 4th, 1837. 
" My Dear Friend, — Your lines, in the sweet words 
of Ossian, were ' pleasant, but mournful to the soul.' To 
have been remembered and kindly spoken of, by your 
beloved father, our most excellent friend, in his dying 
hour, was an affecting, but pleasing proof of his affection 
for us. He always showed to us the consideration of a 
parent. The early friendship of your father and mother 
— they seemingly adopting us into their family — was not 
only a source of social gratification, but, from their stand- 
ing in society, it was a passport to public respect and 
favour, of the greatest value to us, and was entitled to our 
most grateful acknowledgment. In a long intercourse 
with the world, I have never met with a man who united 
in himself so many claims to esteem and love. His 
aspect was so benignant, his manner and address were so 
mild and engaging, that the bosom seemed to open to him 
in confidence before he spoke. Then, his clear mind, 
sound understanding, and benevolent heart, commanded 
respect, inspired confidence, and enabled him to do so 
much good among his fellow-men, Pardon me, I could 



152 EXPRESSION OF SYMPATHY. 

not say less, though this may not be the proper place. 
It is impossible not to mourn the loss of so good a man. 
But we are not without sources of consolation, — his suf- 
ferings are ended, and his gain infinite. He had per- 
formed his part in his day and generation most usefully 
and most worthily ; and while performing his duty, 
through a long life, he has duly estimated the bounties 
of Providence, and rationally enjoyed them. Passed the 
age allotted to man, — full of Christian hope and Christian 
charity, — his spirit returns to his Maker, amid the tears 
and prayers and blessings of all who knew him. Who 
can say that such is not a most enviable lot ? May his 
children emulate his virtues, and like him be useful, be- 
loved, and happy, to as advanced an age. Lsetitia joins 
with me in expression of sympathy and condolence to 
your good mother. We shall never forget her affectionate 
address to us when our dear Ann was taken away. Our 
kindest and most respectful love waits upon her, and our 
best regards to yourself and all the family. 
From your sincere friend, 

"Charles Miner. 
" To Eli K. Price." 

"Died, recently, at West Chester, Chester county, 
Philip Price, aged 74 years. Friendship would claim 
space in your paper, Mr. Editor, to say a word of the 
departed : He gained no laurels in the bloody field of 
battle ; the clangor of the trumpet and the rolling of the 



OBITUARY. 153 

drum awakened no sympathetic stirrings in his pure and 
chastened breast. A member of the Society of Friends, 
whose distinguished doctrinal tenets are derived from the 
character and precepts of our Saviour — to love mercy — 
walk humbly — not return evil for evil — when reviled to 
revile not again, — he bore testimony before the world that 
the terrible scourge of war should be done away, and man 
cease to butcher his fellow-man. I come to tell of no 
lucrative civil offices he filled. His heart never gave way 
to the proud aspirations of ambition, though he cherished 
a proper regard for those who faithfully served their 
country. Then what can you tell us ? I can tell you, 
and record with sincerity and truth, a brief sketch of one 
of the worthiest men this generation has known. 

" Philip Price was descended from a very respectable 
Welsh family, among the earliest settlers in Chester 
county. In person he was tall, well formed, of excellent 
though not robust constitution. His countenance mild, 
intelligent, and pleasing, his movements dignified and 
easy, and his manners and address remarkably bland and 
prepossessing. The mind of Mr. Price was well informed, 
his judgment clear and strong, united to an intuitive per- 
ception of character, and a ready apprehension of the 
right and proper in all matters of business. Though 
seeking no distinction in the walks of public life, it was 
impossible but such a man should have extensive influence 
in society. He had. And as duty led him, it was his 



154 * OBITUARY. 

pride (if that word may be used in connexion with his 
name) and pleasure to exert that influence for the benefit 
of his fellow-men. 

" Mr. Price was among the earliest, most liberal, and 
enlightened of those who broke in on the old exhausting 
method of farming; and took the lead in introducing 
plaster, clover, lime, and a proper rotation of crops, the 
four grand pillars of improvement that have raised and 
sustain Chester county as one of the most rich and pro- 
ductive districts in Pennsylvania. No one had more in- 
fluence in the excellent society of which he was a mem- 
ber ; because that influence was ever exercised wisely and 
prudently, in doing good. On an eminence, in a most 
romantic situation, overlooking the fertile hills and rich 
meadows along the Brandywine, his mansion was situ- 
ated, fronting to the east and south ; on this elevation, 
his spirit seemed pure as the air he breathed ; his mind 
appeared to expand with his expanded view, and his spirit 
was bright as beams of morning sun. Friendly and 
hospitable, it was delightful to visit there and share in 
the converse of himself and his amiable and intelligent 
partner. After educating his children with care, and 
seeing all of them happily settled, and most of them 
near him, Mr. and Mrs. Price, impressed with its great 
importance, and taking a parental and lively interest in 
the improvement of the rising generation, accepted the 



OBITUARY. 155 

situation of Superintendents of West-Town School, where 
they remained for several years. 

" Here, viewing the matter more closely, and actuated 
by the most pure and philanthropic motives, they formed 
the design to erect a School for Girls — somewhat vary- 
ing and enlarging the scope and plan existing at West- 
Town ; not in rivalship or interference with that valuable 
seminary ; but opening their Halls to many who could 
not, by the rules, be admitted there. A large building, 
admirably adapted to the purpose, plain, simple, yet neat 
and commodious, now adorns the flourishing village of 
West Chester ; while the full rooms of happy faces, and 
the press for admittance, show that the West Chester 
Boarding School for Girls, established by Philip and 
Rachel Price, has accomplished and is accomplishing its 
high and benevolent purpose. By the simple rule of 
that unostentatious society, no marble monument will be 
erected over the remains of our departed friend ; but 
while the West Chester Boarding School for Girls shall 
last and flourish — and may it be perpetual — there will be 
a monument to the worth of Philip Price more honoura- 
ble than Blenheim to its first titled possessor. 

" At the age of 74, having spent a life of usefulness 
and virtuous enjoyment — for there never lived a happier 
man — surrounded by children and friends, amid the 
prayers and blessings of all who knew him, the good man, 
like the sun in a mild summer evening, full of Christian 



156 SURVIVING PARENT. 

faith and Christian hope, lost to our sight but not extin- 
guished, sinks calmly and sweetly to rest." 

Rachel Price survived her husband more than ten 
years. She lived to cherish his memory, enforce his ex- 
ample, and enjoy the affections of her children, relatives, 
and friends. She was especially the object of the per- 
sonal care of that daughter, who had for many years been 
resident with and the comfort and solace of her parents, 
whose father bore, as his last testimony of her, that " We 
are of one heart and of one mind ;" whom all the other 
children considered as their representative in that precious 
and sacred charge. In the blended narrative the history 
of Philip and Rachel Price has been told in their princi- 
pal outlines. In a more limited sphere, in her own meet- 
ing, in those near home, and in her daughter's school, 
the same earnest and pathetic appeals in Gospel love con- 
tinued to be made by the survivor unto the end. 

A few extracts from a letter written to absent sons, in 
1839, will show the continued occupation and concern of 
her mind. " I have much to be thankful for. I am 
still able to get to meetings, to visit the afflicted, and my 
children in the neighbourhood, which I consider a great 
favour ; and also to experience that love in my heart to 
increase, which binds together in the bonds of life and 
love. May we all know a partaking thereof, and obey 
the command of our Redeemer, given to his immediate 
followers, that we love one another, for ' by this shall all 



SURVIVING PARENT. 157 

men know ye are my disciples, if ye love one another/ " 
* * "I am solicitous that for the short time I may 
yet have to remain, I may he enahled to fulfil my duty 
towards you ) yea, to double my diligence, craving Divine 
aid therein, and I recommend to all of you who have 
tender plants committed to your care, to endeavour to 
guard and protect them from the many defilements of 
this vain world, and the besetments of the enemy of our 
souls' happiness \ who is seeking to draw our minds off 
the watch, and encumbering them with the cares of the 
world. I know by experience that there is a great care 
necessary for those who have large families to provide 
for, to guard against the unlawful love of lawful things ) 
and the language is, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of Glod 
and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
unto you, for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye 
have need of these things/ Let us endeavour to be in 
readiness when the solemn inquiry may be made, 'What 
have you done with the lambs committed to your care in 
the wilderness of this world V May we not have to an- 
swer that while we were busy, hither and thither, they 
made their escape." " Men that are engaged in public 
business are often exposed and in danger of being drawn 
into party feeling in politics, whereby the mind may be 
much engrossed, if there be not a strict watch maintained; 
but I do hope a word to the wise is sufficient to induce a 

renewed care upon this subject, as coming from the heart 
14 



158 SURVIVING PARENT. 

of an affectionate mother, whose petitions are often put 
up, in sincerity and truth, on behalf of herself and en- 
deared offspring. " 

In the last week of her life, a son, then visiting her, 
writes to his distant sister : a It is very gratifying to find 
that with the infirmity of disease and great age upon her, 
our dear mother retains a clear mind, and the dispositions 
and affections that have characterized her through life. 
None of the irritation and fretfulness that is so frequently 
incident to such age and sickness is perceived. On the 
contrary, like our father, she regrets her inability to help 
herself, and expresses a grateful feeling for all the atten- 
tions she receives. There is a quiet dignity that will 
probably remain with her, however much she may be 
enfeebled by the further progress of disease and age. 
Love to all mankind abounds with her, and this love and 
the religious sentiments with which she has been so 
thoroughly imbued through life, remain with her, as part 
of her nature, only to cease their manifestations with the 
extinction of life. Many are the scriptural expressions 
she continues to repeat to us, with the same sweetness 
she has ever uttered them from the gallery and in the 
family circle, on serious occasions. These are now addi- 
tionally impressive, as they may be the last, and are 
sanctioned and sanctified as if they were, as she expects 
not to be long with us. She has not strength to enlarge 
in her remarks, but from time to time repeats those truths 



HER LAST ILLNESS. 159 

which abide with her, — expressions and promises which 
are not only her own reliance and source of comfort in 
the extremity of life, but which she wishes to impress 
upon her children as their reliance and as their hope for 
the future ; — ( Come unto me, all ye that labour and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest/ ' Take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of me j for I am meek and lowly of 
heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls/ ( Christ's 
invitation is for all to come unto him ; I will give unto 
him that is athirst of the waters of life freely/ &c. The 
great end and purpose of religious faith she summed up 
in this : ' To know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent, this is Life Eternal/ and 
her last charge to that son was, 'Keep a guarded care 
' over all those placed under thy authority. Be obedient unto 
the law written in the heart; and endeavour to draw 
others unto it ; in this you ivitt find your present and 
everlasting peace.' " A few days after, when expecting 
her close, he wrote, " I am sad and sorrowful ; yet my 
reflection teaches me I should be otherwise. Our mother 
has reached a great age, and a continuance of life would 
be a burthen to the spirit. Her long life has been one 
uniform and beautiful example, and at fourscore and four 
years of age, the intellect is bright j to the last her heart 
has remained full of love and affection to all of human 
kind. Through nearly a whole century, she has in sim- 
plicity and truthfulness preached the precepts of Jesus, 



160 HER LAST ILLNESS. 

and she departs without a blemish or a shade upon her 
character or intellect. If the Gospel truths she preached 
were few and simple, their influence was constantly pre- 
sent, and imparted their own serious and sublime simpli- 
city to her character. These deeply felt and sincerely 
believed, with a constant hope beyond this life, she 
seemed never to suffer vacillation from doubts or natural 
propensities, in conflict with the holy influences that 
dwelt on her mind. Is it not then a cause of gratitude 
that the close should be bright, and that, almost without 
pain, her spirit should be released from its mortal tene- 
ment ? Surely it is ; and when her memory shall be all 
that is left of her to us, it will be most pleasing in all the 
residue of our lives to reflect that she lived so long and 
so well, and was gathered as the ripe corn, that felt not 
the sickle that severed it from its earthly connexion. " 
On the evening of the same day, the 6th day of the 8th 
month, 1847, he further wrote, " Our beloved mother has 
departed this life. It is now a solemn certainty that we 
have heard her sweet voice for the last time ; that we 
shall see her living countenance no more, — so divinely 
good. If the good recognise each other in the future 
world, then have the blessed spirits of our beloved parents 
met this day in joy, and felt the felicity that they were 
united in an endless bliss. This was our dear mother's 
fervent hope, expressed for herself and beloved offspring. 



BURIAL. 161 

May her hope and prayer be realized, no one missing to 
mar the heavenly joy." 

Appropriately was it asked at the last solemn gather- 
ing, when the remains of those who so loved in life were 
placed together in their last resting-place, 

" Oh grave ! where is thy victory? 
Oh death ! where is thy sting ?" 

At Birmingham, their earthly remains repose. There 
they tranquilly sleep beneath the soil once trod by hostile 
feet ; on the spot where the battle was fought, and foe 
met foe in deadly strife. It was the scene of their peace- 
ful mission. There they preached peace on earth and good 
will toward men. Thence are seen the hills of Brandy- 
wine, the stream that gave name to the battle, clothed 
with the verdure that sprung beneath their culture. The 
demon of war has fled, — the trace of the battle has 
gone, — the spirit of peace rests on the scene, — and as 
often as the returning seasons shall bring life and beauty 
to these hills and vales, will they freshly bring to mind 
the memory of these benefactors. No monument marks 
their grave ; no epitaph speaks on their tomb ) but the 
vernal bloom of these hills is a living testimony of their 
peaceful deeds. No lettered marble can speak their 
praise; but their name, their worth, their memory, are 
written on the tablets of living hearts ; hearts, wherever 
they are, hither turning in affection, will, in their faith 

14* 



162 CHARACTER, 

and hope and love, soar to the view of the blissful re- 
union of souls in a Heavenly mansion. 

In all the relations of life, Philip and Rachel Price 
were consistent with the professions they made before the 
world. They were mild in temper, of equable disposi- 
tion, and exempt from the irritability and eccentricity 
of character that often impair the dignity and usefulness 
of those of more active imagination and brilliant genius, 
and consequently more practically useful and more gene- 
rally beloved. They were friendly and social with their 
neighbours, rendering aid in times of need, visiting the 
sick and the house of mourning. They had differences 
with none, were pacificators among others, and lived and 
died without an enemy. To say that in all his transac- 
tions Philip Price was governed by a strict integrity, 
would be short of what the truth requires. His disposi- 
tion to oblige seemed not to be less than that of one who 
loved his neighbour as himself, and his property, his 
money, and his credit, were lent according to his ability, 
and if erring, it was on the side of excess of liberality. 
In aiding the progress of travelling Friends, and in their 
entertainment, and in providing travelling accommoda- 
tions for relatives, to reach their meetings, and perform 
their social and other visits, his arrangements were well 
contrived and his facilities liberally contributed. It is 
believed that more than half his time was devoted to 
duties of a social, religious, and humane character, in the 



CHARACTER. 163 

performance of which it is not known that he was ever 
deterred by adverse weather. 

In the delicate and responsible office of administering 
the discipline of the Society of Friends, Philip Price, 
while firm in its execution, was ever compassionate and 
charitable, and sincerely actuated by the desire to reclaim 
an erring brother, and it was only when he believed the 
vindication of its testimonies required it, that he con- 
curred in the judgment of disownment from the society. 
In the transaction of business in its meetings, he was 
inclined to wait for the expression of the views of others, 
and if these expressed his own, he felt discharged from 
an obligation to repeat them. The forward he would 
privately counsel to observe a salutary restraint ; while 
the diffident would receive from him encouragement in 
this wise, — " If we wait until we are perfect before we 
attempt to do good, there are few of us that can do much 
good. Do what appears to thee to be right for thee to 
do, and trust that strength will be given to go through it 
with consistency and with the Divine approval. " 

As superintendents of schools, their judicious conduct, 
kindness, and humanity, were conspicuously manifest 
In a letter recently received from Benjamin Hallowell, 
of Alexandria, Va., who was a teacher at West-Town, 
from 1821 to 1824, and a competent judge of long and 
yet continuing experience, he bears this testimony, — " I 
have always looked back to the time spent there as the 



164 CHARACTER. 

most important and improving period of my life, which I 
attribute, mainly, to the dear Friends, Philip and Rachel 
Price, in immediate charge of the institution. No per- 
sons could have been more admirably qualified for such a 
charge. They invariably manifested towards every mem- 
ber of the large family, which, including teachers, scholars, 
and domestics, numbered over two hundred, the feelings 
of deeply concerned parents, urging to a faithful per- 
formance of individual duty, and to the maintenance of 
mutual kindness, confidence, and affection. In the deli- 
cate relation of umpire in cases of difficulty between 
teachers and scholars, the mild, deliberate, and concerned 
manner of the Superintendent (Philip Price), was re- 
markably successful. He was much opposed, from prin- 
ciple, to corporal punishments, and the committee who 
were at that time in charge of the institution, wisely 
adopted the regulation that previous to the teachers' re- 
sorting to this mode of correction, the case of difficulty 
should be laid before the Superintendent and his sanction 
obtained. "When the men teachers all united in judg- 
ment that the conduct of a boy had been such that cor- 
poral punishment must be inflicted, they laid the case be- 
fore the Superintendent. After hearing the statement 
of the teachers, he usually sat fifteen or twenty minutes 
with them in the most solemn stillness, and manifestly 
under an intense exercise and concern that a right judg- 
ment might prevail in the case ; and I have known in 



SOCIAL DISPOSITION. 165 

repeated instances, the influence of his precious spirit so 
to operate upon the minds of the teachers, that, without 
his uttering a single word, they would unitedly propose 
a milder treatment ; and, what it was very interesting to 
observe, there was not a single instance, where the milder 
course was adopted under these circumstances, which was 
not entirely satisfactory and successful in the result, veri- 
fying the expression of Scripture, ' the effectual, fervent 
prayer of a righteous man availeth much.' " 

This narrative has so much dwelt upon the serious and 
solemn duties of life and religion, with which its objects 
were engaged, that an erroneous impression may be taken 
as to some of the traits of their character. It is true 
that a serious dignity was ever present, because they pos- 
sessed a native dignity of character, and the habitual dis- 
charge of constantly recurring solemn duties naturally 
produced a serious thoughtfulness \ but no persons were 
less encased by a repulsive self-righteousness, or were 
more attractively inviting to cheerful, happy, and inno- 
cent society. They delighted to commingle in feeling 
even with playful childhood, and a vein of pleasant 
humour kindly indulged by Philip Price towards others, 
and particularly the youthful, made his company always 
acceptable, and begot for him their confidence and affec- 
tion. Thousands yet living, who have experienced the 
cheerful kindness, regard, and sympathy of Philip and 
Rachel Price, will bear their testimony to these qualities 



166 THE MINISTRY. 

of their hearts ; and travel where they might over the 
wide territory of our country, their descendants have ever 
enjoyed the happiness of finding such testimony warmly 
and affectionately borne to the memory of their departed 
parents. 

Upon the subject of the ministry, our beloved mother 
has left some observations that it may be useful to repeat 
and preserve. Preaching in the will of man, and with 
the effort of human eloquence, she considered wholly irrc- 
concileable with the sacredness of the service and the 
profession of Friends, that the Gospel ministry can only 
consist in the faithful delivery of the message Divinely 
communicated. It is, she instructs us, "an awfully 
responsible station to fill, to be made use of as an instru- 
ment in the hands of the Lord, and to speak to the peo- 
ple in His Holy name. The eye must be kept single; 
the blind must not lead the blind ; all human importance 
be suppressed, nor man presume to add to or diminish 
the words of prophecy, lest he experience condemnation, 
and lose his part in the book of life. Let not the leaders 
of the people cause them to err, by drawing them into 
sects, party divisions, and controversy, wholly at variance 
with the spirit of true religion, which breathes peace on 
earth and good will to men. The temptation to arrogate 
consequence, and minister to the great Myself, ever besets 
poor human nature, — the king, priest, and people, — and 
the important ' 1/ l me/ and ' mine/ become painfully 



THE MINISTRY. 167 

conspi9uous in their emphatic and frequent use in the 
hearing of the unselfish and devoted worshippers of God, 
who ever ascribe to Him and the Saviour, the merit and 
glory, as they alone are the source of all that is good and 
perfect. These self-important teachers forget that they 
are no longer safe than while they obey the injunction 
of the Master, ( Watch and pray continually, lest you 
enter into temptation/ Let them not take the Lord's 
jewels to decorate self, and give the praise to the creature 
that belongs to the Creator ; and let them remember the 
caution that even the Apostle Paul took unto himself, of 
the necessity of keeping the body in subjection when he 
preached to others, lest he should be himself a castaway. 
Let all who presume to speak in the name of the Lord, 
seriously consider the import of Christ's declarations, 
' Freely you have received — freely give f and that ' all 
who will come, may come, and partake of the waters of 
life freely, without money and without price/ I conceive 
there is great danger of being cast away, from the impru- 
dent caresses of those who may feel very much attached 
to the favoured instruments, and who manifest their 
regard even unto personal flattery, of the poor frail vessel 
through which the pure spring of living water may flow 
to the people, for their refreshment and consolation. But 
these are only earthly vessels, subject to be injured and 
liable to fall, if by heeding the applause of men they be- 
come self-consequent and self-important. ' Let him who 



168 APOLOGETIC OBSERVATIONS. 

thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.' May the 
humble, self-denying followers of Christ, be encouraged to 
take up the cross daily, considering nothing too near or too 
dear to part with, so that they may obtain that crown of 
glory which is laid up in store for all those who love the 
appearance of Jesus in the heart, and yield to it in 
obedience." 

In delineating the lives of Philip and Rachel Price, it 
has seemed unavoidable to speak of the faith, testimonies, 
and usages of the Society of Friends. In that society 
they " lived, moved, and had their being." Engaged in 
the active and practical duties of life and religion, and 
making communications that were chiefly oral and unpre- 
served, the filling up of the history of their services, 
character, and principles, was properly to be drawn from 
those of their religious society. So far as the writer has 
been enabled to give a correct view of these, the result 
cannot fail to be useful. But it is right that his own 
observations and reflections should be accompanied by 
certain cautionary remarks. He is not a member of the 
society, and speaks by no authority as such. He espe- 
cially desires that nothing he has said may be construed 
as favouring either division into which Friends have un- 
happily separated over the other, or as casting a censure 
upon either. He regards that separation but with regret 
and sorrow ; and it is irrespective of it that he has felt 
bound to reiterate the expression of his love and admira- 



ATTACKS UPON FRIENDS. 169 

tion of the principles, testimonies, faith, and practices of 
the society. He has felt great fear and delicacy in 
handling serious and sacred subjects, as one little autho- 
rized to touch them ; while the duty of writing this 
Memoir of his parents, so long neglected and so likely to 
be wholly omitted by others, has appeared to be unmis- 
takeable and imperative. And again, he has had the 
consolation of knowing that for all errors committed, no 
one else than himself can be held responsible, while from 
himself much cannot have been expected ; and as no in- 
fluence can be exerted further than as truth shall manifest 
itself to the acceptance of his readers, so will error as 
readily expose itself to be detected and rejected. 

Since all of this volume was written except what shall 
now be introduced by this paragraph, a work has appeared 
of peculiar virulence and injustice in its charges against 
Friends. Such charges have been infrequent in modern 
times, for the world had begun to appreciate and do justice 
to the principles and services of the society. In the 
enjoyment of the happy toleration and equality of all 
religious persuasions under the Constitutions of these 
United States, where no one sect can exact tithes from 
those who share not in its worship ; where all support to 
the church is a voluntary tribute, and no one can claim 
pre-eminence over another, the causes of irritation have 
so far ceased that we find all disposed kindly to co-operate 

in all good works, and it has become a matter of more 
15 



170 ATTACKS UPON FRIENDS. 

than questionable taste and propriety for any one to 
attack another j for all are alike bound to respect that 
toleration under which each enjoys its own immunity 
from encroachment. There is one cause, however, yet 
operative to produce the recurrence of attacks upon the 
Society of Friends. They have ever held it to be their 
duty, by a mutual watchfulness and supervision, to keep 
their members to a consistent observance of the pure and 
exalted principles and conduct of their religious profes- 
sion, and to disown from membership those whom patient 
and forbearing Christian entreaty tails to preserve from 
bringing a reproach upon the Gospel truth. Those who 
are unwilling to take up (ike cross and sacrifice their 
worldly desires and vanities, impatiently submit to the 
administration of the discipline, and in leaving the society, 
Bometimea let fly their Parthian arrows envenomed by 
resentment. A companion of our youth, and a frequent 
visitor under the roof of the subjects of this Memoir, 
found the society, its discipline and doctrines, uncongenial 
to his inclinations, taste, and convictions, and employed 
his well remembered characteristic powers of ridicule, 
and his acquired biblical learning, to prove " Quakerism 
not Christianity 5" but this eminent Presbyterian minister 
did not condescend to become the industrious ferreter of 
private vices, or the betrayer of the confidences of friend- 
ship and hospitality. His polemic work of near seven 
hundred pages, was sufficiently answered in a pamphlet 



ATTACKS UPON FRIENDS. 171 

of seventy, in " Vindication of the Society of Friends/' 
by Enoch Lewis. This co-labourer, through life, of my 
parents, but yet, at near an octogenarian age, actively 
engaged to enlighten his fellow-citizens and serve human- 
ity, has, in this vindication, and in all his writings and 
example in life, appeared to be the more valuable in his 
advocacy, as showing that in the same mind and bosom 
may reign in congenial consistency the high attainments 
and severe habits of thought of mathematical and ab- 
stract science, together with the belief of the inspired 
influences of religion, as operative on the sensibility of 
the heart. 

The most recent attack, first above referred to, " Qua- 
kerism, or Story of my Life," is a painful exhibition, not 
of the indulgence of playful ridicule, or a battle upon 
polemical differences, but of a sad perversion of the 
writer's own feelings, and of her willingness to seek out 
foibles and delinquencies, that, so far as founded in the 
semblance of truth, are exceptional cases from the general 
rule, and evincive that she was stimulated by resentment, 
or prompted by an appetite that sought its own conge- 
nial food in what it fed upon. The powers of fiction that 
were cultivated in stolen opportunities of novel reading, 
in disobedience to the injunctions of her father, have been 
turned in abuse and disparagement of the principles and 
practices which that father cherished as his life ; and her 
production involves the obvious contradictions that if the 



172 ATTACKS UPON FRIENDS. 

writer had not had a high appreciation of the reputation 
of the society, she would not have been so deeply morti- 
fied in her vanity by her disownnient and deprivation of a 
share therein, and that without its excellent and purifying 
principles and practices her no doubt justly lauded father 
would not have had so high an estimate of them, nor 
have become their exponent in the pious and excellent 
character she describes. Did it never occur to that 
daughter how much she might be grieving the spirit of 
that father, in her unmitigated ridicule and abuse of his 
nearest friends and dearly cherished religious profession? 
It is needless, however, to attempt special refutation of 
her perversions and defamations, for they are apparent in 
the perusal of the book, and are contradicted by the his- 
tory of Friends, and the every-day intercourse of all who 
have lived among them. Of whom can it be more fear- 
lessly asserted that they have ever been engaged to do 
those things that the Saviour of men declared would ob- 
tain the blessing of the Father and the inheritance of the 
kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world? 
When have they not given to the hungered meat, to the 
thirsty drink, to the stranger shelter, clothed the naked, 
visited the sick and imprisoned ? Who more sturdily 
fought the battle of religious freedom and political 
equality, and separation of Church and State, than Fox 
and Penn, and their associates, and gave their principles 
trial and example in Pennsylvania, whence they have been 



ATTACKS UPON FRIENDS. 173 

perpetuated in all the Constitutions of all the States of 
this Union ? Who, but Friends, were the chief support 
of Wilberforce, Pitt, Fox, Clarkson, and others, when 
Parliament abolished the unutterable horrors of the Afri- 
can slave trade ? Who led the way to the abolition of 
slavery in these States, but devoted and conscientious 
Friends, who yielded to the operations of the Spirit of 
the Almighty upon their hearts, when all the rest of man- 
kind were blinded by self-interest, or unfaithful to the 
manifestations of Divine Truth ? Who so humane and 
just towards the helpless aborigines of our continent ? and 
who else refused to take from them by power and hold by 
force, natural rights, that the Grod of Nature had con- 
ferred upon the sons of the forest ? Who but they were 
the pioneers in the blessed cause of temperance for ages 
before others were touched by the modern zeal upon that 
subject ? Who after Howard, like Elizabeth Fry, de- 
scended into foul dungeons, and among the worse living 
pollutions of the prisons, for their purification and reform, 
sustained by the wealth and influences of brothers of 
kindred feelings of humanity ? — yet are these the special 
objects of the aspersion of this perverse writer — and 
that even in the matter of food absolutely required by 
the condition of the health of a delicate and lovely wo- 
man, broken down and exhausted by her constant and 
devoted services for the relief of the most suffering and 
most neglected portions of humanity. It might reasona- 

15* 



THEIR GOOD DEEDS. 

bly have been expected that one who was sacrificing 
health and life for the good of others, could receive the 
sustenance medically advised, and required to prolong 
her strength yet a little longer to serve her suffering fel- 
low-beings, without the reproach of a woman, claiming 
the refinement of a lady, and even a more saving faith in 
the religion of Jesus. But in those who respect not the 
memory of the good and the humane, nor yet the sanctity 
of the grave, what trust can we have ? The Christian 
world will, however, believe the mark quite too high and 
pure to be reached by the shafts sped by private pique or 
malevolence. That world has already awarded to Eliza- 
beth Fry, and to those brothers who in honouring her 
drafts in favour of suffering humanity honoured them- 
selves, the homage of its praise and admiration and a 
world-wide renown ; and when, in a holy sympathy for 
suffering, she gratefully thanked them with the exclama- 
tion, " What sister has such brothers as I \" and they 
happily replied, " What brothers have such a sister as 
we \" that world did them the justice to believe that 
this exultation of gratified feeling had its source in a 
pure and holy Fountain. 

And who, when the world was stirred in sympathy for 
famished Ireland, and poured into that devoted island its 
stores of relief — who were so trusted and so useful in the 
distribution of its concentrated charity, as some of these 
abused Quakers, whom this self-deluded and uncharitable 



THEIR GOOD DEEDS. 175 

authoress would expect the world to believe are as a 
society a whited sepulchre without, and full of loathsome 
corruptions within ? But turn we where we may, where 
are not the evidences of the good deeds of these Samari- 
tan people*? Everywhere they are seen to instruct the 
youth, clothe and feed the poor, to visit the sick and im- 
prisoned, to teach the blind and the dumb, and to preach 
the G-ospel, not among themselves only, but among and 
to all others, without money and without price. And — 
most blessed triumph of humanity ! — they taught man- 
kind most successfully to minister unto the most afflicted 
portion of humanity — to those bereft of reason — by the 
sure approaches of kindness and sympathy to hearts mis- 
takenly supposed, in the prostration of a rational account- 
ability, to be dead to all the feelings of humanity. They 
rescued these unfortunate beings, so often the victims 
of feelings that but make their sensibilities the more 
acute, from confinement and punishments, cruel even 
when inflicted for crime; struck from them fetters and 
shackles, fit instruments themselves to dethrone the 
reason and drive even sanity into madness ; and brought 
them from dungeons into the light of day, and the pre- 
sence of the glorious works of nature, and into the social 
intercourse and sympathy of their fellow-beings, all so 
soothing and restorative to the lacerated feelings, whether 
writhing under real or imaginary woes. So long was it 
before those that in ancient times were spoken of as 



176 SEEKING NO EARTHLY REWARD. 

having " a devil/' were treated otherwise than if really 
so possessed. Some gifted medical men had suggested 
the beneficent idea, and partially tried the experiment of 
the reverse treatment; but it was in Friends' Retreat, at 
York, in England, and in Friends' Asylum, at ^rankford, 
in Pennsylvania, where the happy suggestion was more 
effectually tried and proved for the adoption of the world. 
Strange, indeed, seems it now, that mankind could have 
expected cure to the mind from distracting exasperations, 
more than that the healing process could close a wound 
ever irritated by rude appliances and fresh inflictions. 
But slow has man always been to learn that the chief of 
human aids, to remedy all bodily or mental, moral, politi- 
cal or religious ailments, is to remove all causes of aggra- 
vation, thereby to permit the delicate processes of cure 
quietly to proceed, by the beneficently healing and restora- 
tive power that gave and preserves life, health, and men- 
tal sanity. And lastly, who follow so nearly in the foot- 
steps of Jesus, in His example and commandments, for 
the preservation of good feeling and peace among men ? 
Friends seek not political power, they claim no distinc- 
tion, aspire to no earthly fame, neither is their kingdom 
of this world. All the favour they ask is that men 
should love one another, forbear to persecute, cease to 
injure and make war on each other, learn to do well and 
be happy ; all the privilege they desire is to be permitted 
humbly to do good ; and whomsoever they may aid in 



NO ASSUMED PERFECTION. 177 

whatsoever cause of humanity, all that they ask is a 
hearty co-operation in the service, and freely and in wel- 
come may others take all the political power and influence 
and fame. It sumceth to them to enjoy the reward of an 
approving conscience, and humbly to hope for the final 
award to the good and faithful servant. 

Taking leave of the Irish authoress, the narrative will 
proceed as it was before written, nothing deterred by her 
assault, from recommending the faith, the testimonies, 
and example of Friends, to the imitation of others. In 
thus endeavouring to do them some justice against a 
wanton a.ttack, the language used may appear to be strong 
and unreserved j yet will the members of the society be 
the last to suppose, or to wish, that they should be repre- 
sented as faultless. Some individuals will prove derelict 
in all religious associations ; but it is in their guileless 
simplicity, purity of motives, and unsuspicious character, 
that Friends most frequently present a mark for the 
shafts of ridicule, or expose their motives to a sinister 
interpretation, by themselves unperceived and unintended. 
They admit the duty ever to strive to be, but do not 
claim to be perfect. Man's admitted imperfection and 
liability to err lie at the base of the structure of their 
church polity, which not only exacts a constant self- 
watchfulness, but permits and claims as a fraternal duty, 
watchfulness of one over another, and of all over each, 
wherein the counsels of the least given in an authorized 



178 WOMAN'S POSITION AND INFLUENCE. 

concern may not be unheeded by the greatest. The con- 
stant warfare between good and evil endures through life, 
and as constantly and enduringly demands vigilance and 
the invocation of Divine aid and protection. It is the 
victory of righteousness over sin, that is the great and 
surest test of true religion, and that must be maintained 
unto the end. A secured perfection is unattainable by 
man on earth. It was under a sense of human infirmity 
that the mother in Israel herein commemorated, on whose 
pure life no cloud for a moment cast its shadow, tasked 
herself, even at fourscore years of age, " to double her 
diligence/ 7 that she might fail in no duty that could pre- 
serve her highest peace of mind, and bring to her bosom 
the grateful evidences of the Divine approval. 

Among all the reforms and advances made by the 
Society of Friends, there is, perhaps, none more impor- 
tant and interesting to contemplate, than the improvement 
in the position and influence of woman. Her equality is 
recognised more perfectly than in any other religious 
community. She participates in the concerns of their 
meetings of business, in the executive duties of adminis- 
tering the discipline, in the meetings for ministers and 
elders, in the marriage ceremony makes only the same 
promise as her husband of fidelity and love, and in the 
service of the ministry, all are in a perfect equality before 
God. The result is mutually beneficial : it is humanizing 
to the men ; it makes women more reflective and intelli- 



WOMAN'S POSITION AND INFLUENCE. 179 

gent, for the faithful discharge of their responsible duties 
requires that they should be adequately informed, calmly 
deliberative, tolerant of differences of views, and capable 
of reconciling them to a practical result. This expe- 
rience gives strength of character and mind, but does not 
detract from the qualities of the heart, that make women 
truly to be loved and respected. 

It is true all other religious persuasions afford their 
many bright and useful examples of women who devote 
their lives to works of charity and humanity, and as de- 
voutly and acceptably worship their Creator ; but in none 
do they enjoy the same approach to an equality with men. 
There they are led, taught, and employed, but do not 
deliberate, govern, or instruct, in the higher matters of 
Church government and worship. It is true, too, that 
Quakerism plucks from the person every attractive orna- 
ment of dress, and mirth and gayety are transformed to a 
tranquil seriousness ; yet may not the devotee of fashion 
and pleasure take a useful lesson from the unadorned and 
self-sacrificing Quakeress ? The quick pulsations of plea- 
sure rapidly exhaust the vital energies, the spirits sink, 
and beauty fades, beyond the power of an assumed viva- 
city or the skill of art to retrieve ; and amidst a round 
of empty occupations and distrusted enjoyments, the cul- 
ture of the mind and heart is neglected. Then does the 
advantage of a more prudent reservation of the resources 
of health become apparent ; while the time and inclina- 



180 WOMAN'S AID AND INFLUENCE. 

tion preserved for intellectual pursuits, have made the 
mental improvement progressively apparent in the charms 
of conversation, and in the radiant expressions of the 
countenance. With well preserved health, with peace 
and happiness within, crowned with goodness and intelli- 
gence, ever advancing by constant culture, the human 
form and mind become the most benign and attractive in 
expression. The countenance lighted by intelligence, 
softened and harmonized by the influences of the dove- 
like spirit within, becomes proof against the ravages of 
time and of perennial beauty. The painter may exhaust 
the delicate skill of his exquisite art on a Madonna, or 
encircle with a halo of glory the sacred character of 
heavenly mien, but no artistic skill can successfully rival 
the impressive beauty of " the human face divine," 
when softened and illumined by the inspirations of a 
Divine love, and a serene intelligence and happiness. 

Men who neglect the aid of women for all that is good 
and useful, are not true economists of the resources pro- 
vided by Providence. Though it may be that other per- 
suasions will not admit them to participate in the affairs 
of Church government and in the ministry, their aid and 
influence would be found of incalculable service in their 
schools, asylums, hospitals, and in various ways, in all 
that promotes charity, humanity, and religion, with 
which her feelings and nature are more congenial. Wo- 
men of highest rank and cultivation, thus occupied, 



THE MOTHER'S INSTRUCTION. 181 

would derive the purest consolation and happiness, feel 
life to be a higher blessing, and, by their happy in- 
fluence, interest and attract others to aid in their holy 
engagement ) while we all owe it to those in humble con- 
dition to make more room for female employment in every 
business requiring delicacy and skill of execution with- 
out great muscular effort, guarding them against undue 
exposure, and from every occupation and influence that 
would detract from that respect and regard which a bro- 
ther would wish to entertain for a sister, and a father and 
a husband for a daughter and wife. 

Let not man, in his pride and self-sufficiency, slight the 
aid of woman as unimportant. She has ever aided the 
onward progress of Christianity and civilization, and, 
probably, even more than man, prevents a relapse from 
the vantage-ground attained. But for her constantly 
exerted meliorating influences, man's more rugged and 
ruffian nature would but become more hard, harsh, and 
selfish, and be but seldom adorned by the Christian 
graces. It is the mother that moulds the tender mind 
of infancy, and gives it its most abiding impress through 
life. She forms the character of the future mothers of 
the race, to repeat and perpetuate the same lessons of in- 
struction, and also forms the character of the men who 
will rule the national councils and guide the destinies of 
mankind. Greater, it is believed, would be the loss to 

human welfare, if the mothers' teachings to the infant 
16 



182 THE MOTHER'S INSTRUCTION. 

mind were lost, than if all the seminaries for the educa- 
tion of men were closed for ever. And as there is no 
influence so potent for good, so there is no sight on earth 
so beautiful and holy as that of the intelligent and pious 
mother, when at the close of the day she imbues the 
minds of her children with the spirit of prayer, and 
teaches them to recall its events for self-correction — to ask 
forgiveness of each other for all offences given, and of a 
Heavenly Father for every wrong committed. None but 
a mother will find the time, or will condescend to this 
sacred office ; none can feel the same intense responsibility 
for these precious beings, as she that bore them ; and none 
like her enjoy the holy bliss that kindles in her bosom, as 
she trains her offspring for usefulness on earth, in the 
confiding hope that her labours, Divinely blessed, may 
secure the reunion of her beloved family in Heaven. 
"With such a hope, can so sacred a trust ever be neglected 
or delegated by one true to the maternal feelings ? can 
any other than a mother fulfil the requirings of this high 
accountability, or finally answer in her stead the awful 
inquiry, should any of the precious flock be missing, 
" What hast thou done with the lambs committed to thy 
charge in the wilderness of the world V 

It were well, and it is but just, that woman should be 
ever impressed and encouraged by the thought that she 
is peculiarly, in the order of Divine Providence, designed 
for the accomplishment of the highest good to our race, 



THE MATERNAL INFLUENCE. 183 

and that man also should understand that in the strength 
of a towering intellect, fitted for physical, scientific, and 
political progress, he is less potent for good in all that 
constitutes true excellence of character, and gives the 
most assured promise of everlasting happiness. 

Are these reflections seemingly a digression from the 
narrative ? They but further illustrate the character and 
enforce the example of one of the best of mothers, all 
of whose long life was faithfully devoted to the fulfil- 
ment of these high and sacred duties. They are believed 
to be written, and it is humbly hoped this volume has 
been written, in the spirit of her last and sacredly 
regarded injunction, " Be obedient unto the law written 
in thy heart, and endeavour to draw others unto it V It 
is in this faith that obstacles have been levelled in pros- 
pect, and clouds have melted into the transparency of 
heaven. And, again, I have been encouraged by the 
advice of a venerated father, to those disposed to hang 
back and thereby fail to do what good they might, " If 
we wait to be perfect before we attempt to do good, there 
are few that can do much good." 

It is of course that the question has often recurred, 
and recurs with a more serious impressiveness in drawing 
the narrative to a close — Has it been written with a suf- 
ficient object, and with motives wholly pure ? The best 
response afforded to an inward scrutiny and prayerful 
feeling has been aflirmatively given. For numerous rela- 



184 SUFFICIENCY OF MOTIVE. 

tives and friends has the Memoir been written, and their 
appreciation and love for its objects will assuredly make 
the work acceptable to them; and should it fall into 
other hands, let these reflect and duly allow for the pur- 
pose of its composition. The motives that actuated in 
its execution, are believed in all instances to have been 
pure, and with an exalted aim; at all events, to have 
proceeded from a sense of duty, and a desire for truth 
and usefulness. Having this assurance, whatever censure 
may follow, the sacrifice will be felt to be slight, indeed, 
when compared with that of the natural feelings of a be- 
loved mother, when yielding to the requisitions authori- 
tatively made upon her. 

Upon the consideration of the highest usefulness of 
example, can any error in this step have been committed ? 
The history of the lives commemorated has appeared to 
be instructive in the best duties of the citizen, and the 
most sacred of the Christian ; and if without the adven- 
ture and the worldly fame that arrest the attention and 
dazzle the fancy, it will shed a mild and beneficent light, 
usefully to guide the humble, the industrious, and the 
devoted, who would serve their fellow-beings and walk 
acceptably in the sight of their Maker. It will excite no 
eccentric ambition to leave the quiet and peaceful walks 
of private life, and, affording examples within the reach 
of imitation by all, will become the more extensively use- 
ful. Mankind, as they become more enlightened and 



HIGHEST CULTURE. 185 

humanized, sicken at the shedding of human blood, and 
relish less the details of the horrors of war. The heroes 
of humanity, and the victories of peace, become more 
attractive and admired. By the test that goodness is to 
be preferred to greatness, the good most deserve to be 
held in remembrance, and upheld as examples. Since 
" he that is slow to anger, is better than the mighty, and 
he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city/ 7 how 
much better then those who have not only all their lives 
submitted to the restraining power of religion, but have 
by active service devoted those lives to the good of their 
fellow-beings ! 

Those who shall have attentively followed the writer 
through this narrative, cannot have failed to make the 
reflection that from a point of small beginning, the sub- 
jects of this Memoir underwent a most useful mental 
culture and religious improvement. This growth is easily 
explained : They were faithful to the little furnished, and 
became rulers over more. Their school instruction con- 
sisted of the rudiments of an English education, imper- 
fectly obtained in country schools, at the period of the 
revolution. But their minds were early brought under 
an exercise of feeling that necessarily induced a further 
and higher culture. Religion comes with its strongest 
power upon those minds who believe their impressions to 
be the inspeaking word of the Almighty to His dependent 
children. Under its influence a scrutiny commences upon 



186 HIGHEST CULTURE. 

the conduct, affections, and thoughts, more rigid and 
unsparing than the Socratic cross-questioning of feelings 
and motives ; and to prove faithful to a trust of the most 
sacred obligation, the duty of self-watchfulness, and of a 
conduct conformed to the manifestations received, becomes 
incessant and imperative. Under this high sanction, they 
felt themselves charged to seek their souls' salvation, and 
commissioned to turn the minds of others to the only true 
source of their redemption. Fidelity to this trust was 
more to them than life or death. It was a requisition of 
a like resistless obligation to that which caused their reli- 
gious ancestors to endure persecutions unto imprisonment 
and death ; and that it was which required a modest, 
delicate, and retiring woman to overcome her great 
natural reluctance, and to stand up before the assemblies 
of the people, and to travel abroad to preach the Gospel. 
No other incentive could be so strong upon the human 
mind, to seek and to hold fast all that was good for in- 
struction and spiritual profit, and this higher cultivation 
of the mind, and process of purifying the human affec- 
tions, necessarily increased the intelligence, and gave 
elevation to the thoughts of those undergoing this autho- 
ritative teaching. The author of Elia tells his readers — 
lovers of literature — to " G-et the writings of John Wool- 
man by heart • and love the early Quakers." The sub- 
jects of this Memoir read for something more than the 
indulgence of a literary taste. They read to establish 



HIGHEST CULTURE. 187 

their faith — to strengthen their resolution in a devoted 
service — to " be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto 
good works." They read with deepest sympathy and un- 
doubting faith, the Holy Scriptures, the writings and his- 
tories of early Friends, many of them good scholars ; and 
they heard the preaching and conversations of contempo- 
raries, at a period when many eminent men and women 
adorned the ranks of their society. It was a training to 
enlarge the mind and improve the heart ; to form serious, 
reflective, and earnest character, and to blend in it the 
firmest resolution, with the mildest disposition, and a 
sympathy for others' woe. The command was ever be- 
fore them, " Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is 
in Heaven is perfect," and ever watchfully striving for 
purification and refinement, they attained to a higher 
excellence than practicable under any other teaching. 
They lived in the beauty of holiness, and the brightness 
of the world they beheld before them illumined that be- 
low, and made their character here reflective of the stain- 
less purity of the life to come. 

The review of these pages happily presents nothing of a 
controversial character ) and nothing of the kind, as con- 
nected with the characters commemorated, has been sup- 
pressed. On the sure foundation they started in life, these 
faithful Friends continued unto the end. It was that on 
which the Society of Friends rose distinctively in the begin- 
ning, whose doctrine and testimonies the world then re- 



188 HIGHEST CULTURE. 

sented, but become more enlightened, has been more will- 
ing to acknowledge to be generally truthful and righteous. 
The lives here portrayed, abiding in the love that distin- 
guished their religious ancestry, and in the light and life of 
the Gospel, as made manifest by the Holy Scriptures, and 
the revealings of Divine truth upon the souls of men, 
were in all of life consistent exponents of the true Qua- 
ker character. With them the precious seed fell neither 
upon stony ground, nor was it choked by thorns. The 
first public appearance of one, was with the declaration, 
that " God is a spirit, and they that worship Him aright 
must worship Him in spirit and in truth, for it is such 
He seeketh to worship Him," and among the last, " To 
know Thee, the only True God, and Jesus Christ whom 
Thou hast sent, this is life eternal;" and in the lives of 
both, all was consistent with these declarations. Their 
religion was a religion in its highest power — a vital prin- 
ciple, inwardly active, and productive of a living faith 
and love, worship and works, prayer and praise ; and in 
the same faith and love they lived, so they died, in the 
confident hope of a happy and glorious immortality. 

In gathering these scattered fragments, the writer has 
derived instruction which he sincerely hopes may be ex- 
perienced by others. He has felt the task to be a small 
reparation for the neglect of former opportunities, when 
the best of parents spoke in living tones, in the faith that 
even neglected counsels might return as bread cast upon 



CONCLUSION. 189 

the waters, after many days. So have they been felt to 
return to him in this labour of love and gratitude, and so 
may they return as the bread of life to others, and float 
down the stream of time to successive generations of de- 
scendants. In meditating upon their sweet and peaceful 
memory, his sorrow for their loss has been soothed by 
their precious words of hope, and his aspirations encou- 
raged by their beneficent example. In these renewed 
associations and tender recollections, he has felt that 
" there is a joy in grief, when peace dwells in the breast 
of the sad" — a " pleasant joy of grief, like the shower 
of spring, when it softens the branch of the oak, and 
the young leaf rears its head ;" and his earnest prayer is, 
that their words and example may pass on, alike refresh- 
ingly, to remoter generations, nourishing into spiritual 
life and the beauty of holiness, and their course be made 
freshly visible by beneficent effects, " as willows by the 
watercourses." 

And I thank Thee, my Heavenly Father, that Thou 
hast permitted me to accomplish this filial duty ; and 
hast caused the touch of the dry and mouldering relics 
of thy departed servants to impart a renovated life. In 
the performance of the service, Thou hast given increase 
of strength, shed upon the wakeful hours of night an 
unwonted light, and mingled in the busy day its purest 
joy. Thou hast awakened long slumbering emotions of 
the heart, whispered to the ear the sweet tones familiar 



190 CONCLUSION. 

to youthful days, as in distant echoes from my native 
hills, and led me again over their green pastures as one 
of the flock that knoweth the voice of the True Shepherd ; 
and again have I listened to the pathetic tones of a devo- 
ted Mother's Gospel ministry, and a dedicated Father's 
counsels of wisdom. May all their descendants, in the 
retrospection now afforded, aided by Thy Holy Spirit, 
enjoy the like happy experience. May the sweet memo- 
ries of the distant past, thus influenced, cause again and 
often to flow in their breasts the pure fountain of living 
waters, leaving none to thirst again ; and with the bap- 
tism of joyous tears may Thy heavenly spirit approv- 
ingly descend upon them. Take from every error here 
committed the power to harm ; cure every wound here 
inflicted by the instillations of Thy healing balm ; and 
commission these leaves to take their flight only for good. 
May these gathered thoughts, as winged seeds borne upon 
the breeze, fall upon goodly soil, and, nourished by Hea- 
venly dews, spring into life, in their blossom yielding a 
grateful fragrance unto Thee, and in their fruit righteous- 
ness and eternal life. 

Eli K. Peice. 



INDEX. 



Agriculture, 19, 20, 79, 80. 
Amicable compact, 123. 
Apologetic, 168. 
"Appeal," 129. 
Appointments, 119. 
Anniversary, 145. 
Ashbridge, Geo., 8. 
Attacks on Friends, 169. 
Birth, 6. 
Burial, 161. 
Cathrall, Hannah, 14. 
Character, 162. 
Coal Mine, 141. 
Communism, 112. 
Consciousness, 92. 
Cook, C, 26. 
Co-operative labour, 116. 
Crops, rotation of, 19. 
Courtesy, 67. 
Cox, S. H., 170. 
Darby, Dh., 22. 
Davy, Sir H., 108. 
Disinterested, 176. 
Deviation, 10. 
Delaware, 37. 

Division of Friends, 119, 132. 
Doctrines, 130. 
Disownments, 125. 
Divine Light, 88. 
Dress, 65. 
Education, 35, 86. 
Elders, 40. 



Emlen, Samuel, 17. 
Experience, 92, 95. 
Expression of sympathy, 151. 
Faith, 130. 
Families, 117. 
Farming, 18. 
First principles, 128. 
Forgiveness, 72. 
Fox, Geo., 103, 135. 
Free Agency, 91, 115, 117. 
Fry, Elizabeth, 75, 173. 
Fugitive Slaves, 49. 
Garrigues, Ed., 29. 
Gospel Love, 126. 
Grellet, Stephen, 30. 
Gypsum, 21. 
Hall, John, 33. 
Highest culture, 183. 
Home industry, 78. 
Home reminiscences, 46. 
Hollingsworth, S., 26. 
Jackson, Andrew, 137. 
Jackson, William, 134. 
Indians, 75, 136. 
Insane, treatment of, 175. 
Kersey, Jesse, 68. 
Kirk, William, 7. 
Last journey, 139. 
Last illness, 146, 158. 
Learning, 102, 106. 
Letters, 11, 65, 112, 151. 
Lewis, Enoch, 170. 



192 



INDEX. 



Light within, 89, 111, 129. 

Lindley, Jacob, 10. 

Litigation, 122. 

Locke, John, 102. 

Manners, 67. 

Marriage, 18. 

Martineau, H., 100. 

Merinoes, 78. 

Ministers, 40. 

Ministry, 21, 82, 166. 

Miner, Charles, 141, 151. 

Mother's instruction, 181. 

Mott, Rd., 42. 

Motive, sufficiency of, 182. 

Naylor, James, 71. 

New Jersey, 43. 

New York, 143. 

Newlin, Sarah, 37, 40. 

Obedience, 91. 

Obituary, 152. 

Ohio, 54, 68. 

Owen, R., 112. 

Parentage, 6. 

Peace principles, 48, 73, 176. 

Perfection not assumed, 177. 

Persecution, 74. 

Peters, Judge, 19. 

Pioneers, 7. 

Plainness, 65. 

Post-Dog, 9. 

Price, Hannah, 13. 

Price, Isaac, 29. 

Profession, 66, 85. 

"Quakerism," 170. 

Religious journeys, 26, 37, 43, 

54, 59. g g 3 

VJ v v THE 



Religion of the heart, 109. 
Reform, spirit of, 48. 
Retrospection, 127. 
Rush, Dr., 108. 
Separation, 119, 132. 
Sheep, 78. 
Simpson, John, 25. 
Slavery, 51, 173. 
Smith, Samuel, 41. 
Social structure, 116. 
Social gatherings, 144. 
Soldiery, 77. 
Surviving parent, 156. 
Sympathy, 151. 
Talbot, Sarah, 43, 59. 
Temperance, 48. 
Thorn hedges, 46. 
Trusts, 122. 
Unity, lost, 121. 
Vindication, 169. 
Virginia thorn, 46. 
Virginia, 26, 58, 59, 61. 
Visitations, 10, 15. 
Want, 8. 
War, 78. 
Warning, 70. 
Weeding, 47. 
West-Town, 35. 
Witchel, Mary, 54. 
Woman's preaching, 24. 
Woman's influence, 178. 
Woolman, John, 52. 
Yarnall, Eli, 41. 
Yellow fever, 29. 
.^jung, R., 22. 

END. 


















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